David Nuttall – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Nuttall on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what average period of time is taken between the date of the opening of an investigation under regulation 35 of the Compensation (Claims Management Services) Regulations 2006 and the date on which (a) proceedings are commenced and (b) the case is closed without proceedings being brought.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The CMR Unit aims to conduct all investigations in a proportionate and efficient manner. This means determining as quickly as possible whether a CMC under investigation is in breach of the conditions of its authorisation. If following an investigation it is clear that those conditions have been breached and there is a public protection issue, any proposed enforcement action will be expedited.

(1) 6 June 2013 was the earliest date from when the Claims Management Regulation (CMR) Unit began an investigation under regulation 35, which remains unresolved but no enforcement proceedings have yet commenced.

(2) Information is available for the period, 12 months to 18 June 2014. The CMR Unit conducted 46 investigations under regulation 35, which took an average of 5 months, 21 days before enforcement proceedings were taken, and an average of 2 months, 8 days before being closed without the requirement for enforcement proceedings.

(3) As at 18 June 2014, the CMR Unit was investigating 24 CMCs under regulation 35.