CM April 2020

NEWS
IN BRIEF
New CEO at R3
LIZ Bingham OBE has been appointed
CEO of R3, the insolvency and
restructuring trade association.
She joins R3 after a 35-year career
in the insolvency and restructuring
profession, during which she was
a Managing Partner at EY, and was
R3 President in 2013-14. Liz replaces
Emma Lovell, who is leaving R3 to
become CEO of the Lending Standards
Board (LSB).
As R3 CEO, Liz will oversee R3’s
work to protect and promote the
strong restructuring and insolvency
framework which is required to
enable the association’s members to
fulfil their vital role in the economy
and in society. She will also manage
the execution of R3’s Strategic Plan,
which was launched in 2019 and is
the association’s roadmap for the next
three years.
R3 President Duncan Swift says
that Liz is taking charge of R3 at a
crucial time: “The insolvency and
restructuring profession plays a really
important role in the economy. From
returning money to creditors to helping
turn around distressed businesses,
and of course helping people access
debt relief, the profession’s work is
absolutely vital in supporting lending,
trading and investment, and the overall
smooth functioning of the business
environment.
Technically
Speaking
THE Technical Committee met in
early March to discuss a variety
of recent announcements and
consultations, including a ban on
gambling businesses allowing
people to use credit cards to place
bets and advice from the FCA
for credit card firms to review
their approach to persistent debt
customers. The potential impact
of the proposed reinstatement
of HMRC preferential status
was also discussed, alongside
the implementation of a 60-day
breathing space.
The committee debated the
increase in number of fraud cases
across several areas, including
within insolvency, enforcement and
tax, and Lord Mendelsohn’s Private
Members Bill (reported in last
month’s CM). The new requirement
for authenticating confirmation of
payee details when making online
payments was considered, as
well as further discussions around
Companies House, the validation of
information it stores, and the impact
on information providers.
Cross party group
urges Government to
act on bailiff reform
A
group of cross-party MPs and
Peers has joined a coalition
of debt advice campaigners
in urging the Government to
break its silence on bailiff industry
reform.
It is now more than a year since the
Ministry of Justice closed its call for
evidence on the bailiff industry, but
despite what campaigners claim is
overwhelming evidence of the need for
wide-ranging reform, the Government is
yet to give a comprehensive response.
The Taking Control coalition, made
up of 11 charities and debt advice
organisations, claims it has routinely
seen its clients suffer at the hands of
bailiffs. New figures show that since
February 2019, Citizens Advice alone
has been contacted by 41,121 individuals
with 111,081 issues specific to bailiffs.
Meanwhile 83 percent of callers to
National Debtline who experienced
bailiff action reported the bailiff
visit had a negative impact on their
wellbeing.
Backing the coalition’s call is a group
of cross-party politicians, including
Rachel Reeves MP and Lord Pickles,
who have written to Justice Secretary
Robert Buckland MP highlighting
the urgent need for bailiff reform as
recommended by the Justice Select
Committee last April.
“We’ve waited long enough
for the kind of meaningful
reform that has successfully
reduced harm in other areas
of debt recovery.’’
The Committee endorsed the
charities’ call for the introduction of
an independent complaints body, a
statutory, independent regulator for
the enforcement agent industry and
regular reviews of bailiff fees. Currently,
the bailiff industry is self-regulating.
To date the only commitment made by
the government is making body-worn
cameras mandatory for private bailiffs,
but, without independent regulation,
this measure will not be enough.
Phil Andrew, CEO of StepChange,
says that lives have been turned upside
down by the unregulated bailiff sector:
“We’ve waited long enough for the
kind of meaningful reform that has
successfully reduced harm in other
areas of debt recovery. The simple truth
Advancing the credit profession / www.cicm.com / April 2020 / PAGE 8
is that, on bailiffs, the Government is
woefully behind the curve. We have the
evidence, we have support from across
parliament and the Lords - it’s now time
for the Government to act.”
Dame Gillian Guy, Chief Executive
of Citizens Advice, claims that the
Government has been dragging its
feet: “Someone seeks our help every
three minutes with an issue related to
bailiffs and this cannot continue. Only
independent regulation of bailiffs will
protect vulnerable people from the
stress, anxiety and financial hardship
they face right now.”
Russell Hamblin Boone, the CEO of
CIVEA, is, however, frustrated by what he
sees as ‘unfair allegations’ that continue
to be aimed at enforcement agents.
While he understands the concerns
about problem debt being attributed
to Council Tax payments, he believes
it is worrying that debt advice groups
believe that stopping enforcement will
solve the problem: “There is a persistent
stream of poor research that is used
to criticise enforcement practices,” he
told Credit Management. “For example,