Lexis®Library update: The consultation response notes that a ‘majority of respondents, namely those from the legal and credit sector…disagreed with the proposed alignment’ on the grounds that ‘the proposed fees do not represent the costs of proceedings’ and that the alignment is ‘unjustifiable in relation to the quality of the service provided’. Indeed, a majority of respondents opposed the principle of enhanced fees.
Despite this, the government has responded that it believes that there is ‘a strong justification to proceed with the alignment of the fees for online and paper civil money and possession claims’. However, as a result of the concerns raised by respondents to the consultation with regards the quality of the county court bailiff enforcement service, especially in relation to ‘the difficulty users of the service currently experience in enforcing warrants in a timely manner, and the potential for increased debt to be passed on to debtors’. As a result of these concerns, the government has decided not to align the £77 online fee with the £110 paper fee for Fee 8.1. Instead, the government intends to introduce a 7.7% inflationary increase backdated to 2016. Online and paper fees will instead be consolidated at £83.
Consequently, the government has decided that fees will be aligned to their correspondent paper level as set out in the consultation, with the exception of Fee 8.1.
The government’s response can be found here.
The impact assessment can be found here.
Source: Alignment of the fees for online and paper civil money and possession claims
This content was first published by LNB News / Lexis®Library, a LexisNexis® company, on 8 March 2021 and is published with permission. Further information can be found at: https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/
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