We had a busy agenda for the Board’s October meeting, as we get ever closer to launching our new standards for enforcement.
We started with a presentation from MEL Research on the findings of their recent study of a large sample of body worn video of enforcement agents’ behaviour on the doorstep.
Getting this evidence, to try to understand the current picture and the prevalence and type of bad practice against current standards, was an early priority for the ECB. It is positive to see the final report coming together. We are grateful to all of the firms that took part in this research, which we know has required time and resources to facilitate and host the researchers.
We discussed the findings from the research and how the results will inform the final development of the ECB’s standards. In particular, we sought assurance from the team that our standards and oversight framework will provide us with a good platform to address any of the examples of bad practice that are identified in the research.
It is right that at this stage the research assesses the industry against the current National Standards, so it is only breaches against these that will be reported. However, through our new standards, the ECB will be raising the bar in many areas, so some of the cases that were assessed as compliant in the research would not be compliant under the ECB’s new standards. We discussed some of the borderline cases that fall into this category, which help to underline the importance of the wider focus on ensuring consistent implementation of the ECB’s new standards.
Having MEL in the room with us also allowed us to interrogate the methodology and findings further to ensure we can have confidence in it. The final report will be published in full at the end of October, along with the methodology, so that everyone can see what the findings relate to and how they were reached.
With the research data fresh in our minds, we went on to discuss the responses that we received to our recent standards consultation. We received a total of 46 responses and the valuable insight provided in those responses has enabled us to further hone and refine our standards. Even more encouraging is that almost all responses were very supportive overall of the standards and what we are trying to achieve.
There will be a number of technical drafting changes that will be made in order to reflect some of the very helpful detailed responses we got. These changes are important but will not significantly alter the substance of what we were proposing.
Our main discussion focused on a smaller number of substantive changes that the team are proposing, in response to the bigger issues raised in responses. We agreed an approach on all of these, which will be set out and explained in full when we publish our response to the consultation and the final standards at the end of the month.
It is a credit to all those involved that we will soon be able to publish these new standards, confident that they are supported by both the enforcement industry and the debt advice sector.
Beyond these two headline items, the Board agreed the immediate priorities for the ECB in terms of engaging with the new government and how we can ensure that it continues to support the ECB and its mission. We also had a workshop on our longer-term strategic thinking, covering issues such as the ECB’s future scope and focus.
Finally, we agreed a budget reforecast which concludes that the ECB is currently on track to end the year just slightly under our budget.
There are some big milestones ahead and, as ever, I look forward to ongoing collaboration with all of our stakeholders as we launch our new standards and get ready for full operational oversight.
Catherine Brown, Chair