Expressions of interest are invited from Local Authority Trading Standards Departments to run a monitoring and compliance unit on a contract basis for the DCA. This unit will support the regulation of claims management services by the Secretary of State as announced in Parliament on 8 June once the Compensation Bill successfully completes its passage through Parliament. We would be grateful if expressions of interest could be submitted by Wednesday 5 July 2006.
The role of the monitoring and compliance unit will be to:
Should the Compensation Bill receive Royal Assent the Department will be able to provide appropriate funding to a trading standards department to provide this support on a fixed term contract. This would be an 'interim' arrangement pending the introduction of the wider government reforms of legal services (a draft Legal Services Bill was published on 24 May). The contract is expected to last for up to three years.
This is a preliminary exercise to explore the feasibility of Trading Standards taking on this role. The provisional timetable for this process is as follows:
There will be a selection process after Bill receives Royal Assent (this could be granted as early as mid-July, but may not be achieved until the autumn).
Expressions of interest in writing (no more than three sides of A4) should provide information about
The statutory regulation of claims management services is likely to be implemented from autumn 2006. The aim of introducing regulation is to increase protections for consumers, curb abuses, and raise standards across the claims management sector.
The Compensation Bill requires the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs to regulate directly in the event that he does not designate another body as regulator. To assist us in performing our regulatory functions we envisage that a range of key administrative services could be carried out by a single trading standards department working across England and Wales.
Experience in enforcing existing consumer protection law leaves trading standards departments uniquely placed to assist with the delivery this new regulation, which in particular is aimed at tackling rogue claims management providers.
The Compensation Bill applies only to England and Wales.
More information: Background information about the Compensation Bill
For further details and/or an informal discussion, please contact:
Michael Stacey
Private Funding Regulation Branch
Legal Services Regulation and Redress Division
Selborne House
54 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 6QW
Telephone: 020 7210 2633
email