Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will bring forward delegated legislation under the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 enabling complaints against claims management firms to be heard by the Legal Services Ombudsman.

Lord Faulks

The Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 provides the necessary enabling powers to put in place the funding arrangements for the Legal Ombudsman to deal with complaints against claims management companies. These provisions were commenced on 21 March 2014. They include a power for the Lord Chancellor to make Regulations to charge fees to recover the costs he has incurred in meeting the expenditure of the Legal Ombudsman in relation to claims management complaints.

The Government consultation on the proposed structure of the Lord Chancellor’s cost recovery fee ended on 6 June and the responses are being analysed. Once the fee structure is finalised, the Fee Regulations will be laid in Parliament for approval. Following this, an order to commence section 161 of the Legal Services Act 2007 will be laid. This will extend the remit of the Legal Ombudsman to enable it to deal with complaints about authorised claims management companies.

The government is committed to enabling this as soon as possible.