I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require the Secretary of State to publish an assessment of the effectiveness of current regulation of the debt collection and civil enforcement sectors and to report to Parliament on the potential merits of statutory regulation of those sectors; and for connected purposes.
Today, I introduce the Regulation of Bailiffs (Assessment and Report) Bill. We are in this place to speak up when others cannot and to put right what is clearly wrong. This Bill to get a grip on rogue bailiffs does exactly that.
I want to share some truly heartbreaking stories: stories of vulnerable people left petrified in their own homes and disabled people terrified that vital equipment could be wrongfully taken from them. It is time that despicable practices in the enforcement sector came to an end for the thousands across the country who have suffered serious injustices at the hands of cold-hearted rogue bailiffs—those who have brought shame to their own industry. I came into politics to fight for social justice and that is why I am proud to be a Labour MP, but nothing has fuelled that fight more than hearing from those crushed by the worst elements of the enforcement sector; their pain and their stories have imprinted themselves on me with lasting force, and it is for them that I am absolutely determined to change the law.
Let me first thank StepChange and particularly Sophie Morris, who is in the Gallery today. I also want to give credit to the Enforcement Conduct Board, known as the ECB, which voluntarily regulates 95% of the sector. In my view, it should oversee this regulation. At present it issues guidelines for the enforcement sector, but that, of course, is the issue: these guidelines lack legal heft.
The Statute of Marlborough, which passed in 1267 during the reign of Henry III, is one of England’s oldest pieces of legislation still partly in force today. It shows that even 750 years ago people were thinking about the need for fair debt collection, yet here we are today faced with the same challenges.
As a former regulator at the Financial Conduct Authority, I understand the importance of setting clear standards. The last changes to enforcement law were made about a decade ago and introduced a three-stage process and stronger protections for vulnerable people. Despite those changes, aggressive practices and inconsistent standards still exist. That is why the independent ECB was created in 2022 to voluntarily oversee the sector. According to Citizens Advice, one in three people who have had contact with a bailiff have experienced behaviour that breaks Ministry of Justice expectations, and even among the bailiffs that are regulated under its current scope, 1% of visits were deemed too aggressive by the ECB. That equates to hundreds if not thousands of visits a year. That is why we need a fair and proportionate debt collection system.