Chairs Blog – April
We were in London for April’s Board meeting and, as always, it was nice to meet in person with the Board and team. And we made the most of it by welcoming Sarah Naylor, Amy Collins and Russell Hamblin-Boone to discuss CIVEA’s current work and priorities and opportunities for further collaboration with the ECB.
It was an informative session and the Board was grateful for the thought that CIVEA had put in to explaining the current social and operating context for enforcement and what CIVEA is focussing on to support its members.
It is clear that there is significant alignment between CIVEA’s strategic priorities and the ECB’s. For example, CIVEA’s goals around changing the perception of enforcement and professionalising the sector align very well with our own work and plan. We also share CIVEA’s enthusiasm for seeking opportunities to improve the certification process and administration of the Certified Bailiff Register, as well as ensuring that enforcement training accords with modern practices and techniques. And it was interesting to touch on contracting challenges around social and added value clauses, issues on which the Board has had some previous discussions with creditors.
We also discussed some of CIVEA’s reservations around the ECB, including the pace of the ECB’s set up, a lack of direct experience of enforcement amongst Board members, and the ongoing challenge of building trust in an industry that is new to this kind of oversight.
After the session, the Board discussed the importance of making this sort of session a regular feature of our engagement, as well as other opportunities for Board members to engage directly with a wider range of people in the sector through conferences and events.
There were two other main items on the agenda. The first was an excellent session run by the complaints team in which the Board received a demo of the live complaints system. It is very encouraging to see this in operation and starting to make a difference to members of the public.
We were also presented with early complaints data from the first quarter of operations. It is very early days but we are already starting to see an increase in the number of people coming to the ECB, as firms complete their first tier complaints handling and move towards the two-stage approach process required under our rules. This is something we will be watching carefully. It already looks like volumes are likely to be at the higher end of our modelling, as people embrace the opportunity to have swift access to a fully independent complaints handling system.
The other agenda item was on our public affairs strategy, in preparation for if the Ministry of Justice does proceed to consult on giving the ECB statutory powers. We are hopeful that this will happen at some point this year and if so, it is important that the opportunity is taken to secure the limited statutory powers that we think are necessary to underpin the ECB’s work and ensure the future of proportionate and effective oversight of the enforcement sector.
We discussed how important it is to effectively demonstrate that giving the ECB statutory powers would underpin and support growth in the industry, by providing protection against poor practice or other anti-growth shocks that could really harm the industry (and creditors). We also talked about the wider role the industry plays in supporting economic growth, by collecting public money and supporting small businesses to collect money they are owed that they need to survive and thrive.
We covered the important question of accountability to government and how this could be achieved in a proportionate and streamlined way, consistent with the Government’s ethos on regulation for growth.
Whilst we are in favour of limited statutory powers and would not intend such statutory underpinning to significantly change how we are approaching oversight, we recognise that there are a range of technical and governance questions that need answers for effective and proportionate statutory regulation to become a reality. We are therefore keen to develop a blueprint for what statutory powers for the ECB could look like and will seek to engage with our stakeholders on this to get their views and try to develop some consensus.
Finally, we discussed what we will be looking for when we start the search for new Board members later this year. This is an opportunity to expand the breadth of experience around the table, and when we start the search, we will welcome help from our stakeholders in making sure the brief reaches all those with a stake in the sector and our mission.
Our next Board meeting will be a remote one in June, before we head to Abergavenny in July.
Catherine Brown
Chair, Enforcement Conduct Board