Chief Executive’s Report – March 2026

Introduction

1. Since the last meeting, we have had significant interest in the launch and findings from the Insight Report, including coverage on BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio 4 Money Box. We’ve also seen a surge in requests for the ECB to speak at a wider range of events, to share the findings and our analysis of them. It is encouraging to see the appetite to hear more about this new evidence base and what we are doing about it.

2. I have also started to do significant engagement with industry in preparation for the consultation on the draft business plan and budget. I have heard repeated concerns about the fact that the 5% fee rise that the Ministry of Justice has announced is yet to be implemented and what this means for firms’ operations, which I expect to be a theme in responses to our consultation on the draft budget.

Financial management update

3. Total expenditure at the ten-month point in financial year i.e. to the end of January was £1,218,484 (November: £932,755) against the reforecast budget of £1,258,972 (November: £989,327), giving an underspend against the reforecast budget of £40,488 (November: £56,572). As previously reported, the underspend resulted from an underspend on salaries and otherwise related to phasing and timing of expenditure.

4. In terms of the balance sheet, the cash position as at the end of January was £619,679 (November: £827,441). Accounting for current liabilities, our net current asset position is £625,655 (November: £920,048).

5. Based on the current underspend against the reforecast, we will close the financial year with carried forward funds of £330,363. Based on our reforecast expenditure, this equates to 2.6 months of reserves based on the 2025/26 monthly run rate (2.0 months of the 2026/27 monthly run rate).

6. The draft business plan and budget 2026/27 are being published for a 4-week consultation period in the week commencing 23 February 2026 and the final draft business plan and budget will be presented to the April Board for sign off.

Staffing update

7. We held team days in London on 28 January and on 25 February. At both sessions, we took time to review our workplans, as we head towards the end of the current financial year, and look to the next.  
   

8. Our two new team members continue to progress well with their onboarding, and we expect to be able to share news with the Board at the meeting about the outcome of the latest recruitment in the Complaints team, as well as the recruitment of a new Risk and Compliance Manager, following interviews held on 23 and 26 February respectively.  

9. We are planning to introduce a scheme to allow staff to purchase up to 5 days of additional annual leave per year, from 1 April. This is part of a wider policy on annual leave, which will be presented to Board once finalised.
    

Data Protection and IT update

10. Our new Managed IT Services providers, Elysian, have now completed three months of support for the ECB, having started on 1 December 2025.

11. The helpdesk service is bedding in well, and the Head of Corporate Services now meets with the head of the helpdesk on a monthly basis to review outstanding tickets and to assess performance against the KPIs within the contract.

12. There have been no data incidents since the last Board meeting.

Oversight and Thematic Review

13. The Thematic Review programme of visits has now concluded. The Risk and Compliance Principal is currently preparing individual reports for distribution to each of the firms involved, once agreed with the Director of Government & Risk. It is planned for these reports to be issued during March.

14. A separate paper has been provided to the Board on the key findings from the work overall and next steps required. The summary Thematic Report is in draft form at present with the intention of this being made available for publication in May.

ECB Standards Development

15. There is a separate agenda item on the new Vulnerability and Ability to Pay standards. Papers include the near final draft of the Standards and report on the consultation responses, including a summary of the key changes that we have made in response to our analysis of the feedback to the consultation. The paper includes the proposed plan for publication and implementation timelines, and our intention is for the final standards to be introduced in March 2026. We are also sharing the final reports of our independent research with agents and people with lived experience of enforcement. We intend to publish these in full as part of launching the Standards.

Complaints handling

16. As of 19 February, we had 167 live cases. The cases are distributed as follows: 9 at Initial Consideration, 68 at Further Consideration and 90 at investigation stage.

17. Of those at investigation, 9 are at draft decision stage, 19 are under investigation with the remainder pooled for allocation. 

18. To date we have closed 724 cases, 563 at Initial Consideration, 79 at Further Consideration and 82 at Investigation stage.  Given the higher than anticipated demand, resourcing challenges, a focus on training and inducting our two new starters (who joined on 15 December and 2 January) our performance against our KPIs is not where we would want it to be and is set out in the table below. The Board was alerted to these challenges when it discussed complaints data in November. At that time, we had anticipated a new Complaints Investigator joining us on 2 March. That recruitment fell through, and we are recruiting again, with interviews held on 23 February. 

Complaint Stage	Target	Cases	Performance
Initial Consideration	Consider in 5 working days (from receipt)	887	92%
Further Consideration	Consider in 15 working days (from receipt)	251	51%
Investigation	Close in 90 calendar days (from Invest.)	82	22%

19. Incoming cases to the ECB dropped slightly in the period October to December but increased again in January to 89 and we have received 54 cases so far in February.  The number of cases passing to further consideration has also increased, with 66 moving from initial to further consideration so far this calendar year (as compared to 52 in the same period pre-Christmas). We are not yet quite keeping up with demand and have closed or moved onto investigation 49 further considerations in the same period. However, that is to be expected given that our new team member is going through her induction program, getting up to speed and that we are looking to do more at further consideration stage. 

20. In terms of the cases awaiting further consideration, we have taken the same approach in terms of managing expectations and updating where necessary as we have done with investigations. What has proven challenging has been complainant engagement with the older further consideration cases. We have reviewed and changed slightly the further consideration process to maintain focus and momentum. Promisingly, we have closed or passed to investigation 31 cases so far in February. However, as we work through the old further consideration cases our performance against this KPI will decrease further.

21. We are allocating cases for investigation that are already outside of our KPI of 90 calendar days. Our focus has remained on managing the expectations of the parties from the outset and providing regular updates. As we move towards year end our focus is on closing old cases. 

22. Our investigations continue to demonstrate the value of the independent consideration of complaints, with over half having been either upheld in some way or resolved without the need for a formal investigation decision. The investigation outcomes are set out in the table below.

Investigation Outcome	Number
Resolution achieved or offered after submission of complaint	5
Not upheld	35
Partly upheld	30
Upheld	8
Referred to body	1
Another scheme considering complaint	3

23. As well as providing remedies for the individual we have recommended changes to procedures and / or for reminders or training to be provided to staff in 35 cases. 

24. Since my last report, we have received four decision review requests and have five in total that are under consideration. We have not received any service complaints.

25. We are working and meeting with Tizo every two weeks to finalise our reporting platform and resolving technical issues with the system. We have already seen tangible improvements in that area as a result.  Separately, we are meeting with them next week to discuss the outcome of their work in AI-enabled dispute resolution. The aim of that work has been for them to deliver practical improvements in case handling efficiency, consistency and turnaround times. 
    

Political strategy and public affairs

26. We successfully published our first Insights Report in January. The report was generally well-received, with the debt advice sector and enforcement industry expressing an appetite for more detailed breakdowns of the data next year. Copies were also sent to a targeted list of MPs and stakeholders, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the Minister for Courts and Legal Services.

27. Radio 4’s Money Box covered the report, interviewing me, Chris Bloore MP, a representative from Money Wellness, and a person who had had a difficult experience with an enforcement agent. The piece was also used on BBC Breakfast and various other BBC outlets.

28. The All Partly Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Debt and Financial Inclusion hosted a panel event on the Insight Report on 27 January, in Parliament. Russell Hamblin-Boone, CEO of CIVEA and Peter Tutton, Policy Director at StepChange spoke alongside me. A range of enforcement industry and debt advice stakeholders attended along with four MPs/MP staffers.

Communications and Engagement

29. The Insight Report provided the main focus of our communications and engagement work in January and February, and gave us an opportunity to test out our refreshed design and branding. Our Linked In content is performing well, with new followers, comments and reposts all significantly higher in January/February than November/December.

30. Outside of the report, we have continued to engage with a range of stakeholders. I spoke at the MALG Members Conference on 12 February, where delegates were provided with an update on our work to date, the findings from our report, and our next steps. The Director of External Affairs gave a similar presentation to the Credit Services Association, and we have submitted several articles for stakeholder publications as well. We look forward to speaking at the ten IRRV fora in March and have a number of other conferences scheduled for later in the Spring.

31. The draft Business Plan will be published for consultation towards the end of February, and work is underway to develop a communications plan for our Vulnerability Standards which we intend to publish in mid-March.