CMC regulation fees to remain at current level, says Claims Management Regulator

The Claims Management Regulator is to keep regulation fees for claims management companies at their current level.

The regulator has made the decision following a consultation on proposals to increase fees, which closed in December last year. It said that it had “carefully considered” the responses to the consultation and decided to keep feel levels unchanged.

The body, run by the Ministry of Justice, did not believe that calls to reduce fee levels had any merit, saying that resources were needed to help consumers who were still being harmed by a small number of companies whose actions have a disproportionate effect on the CMC market.

“The proposed fee levels are designed to fully recover the costs of operating the regulatory regime from authorised businesses without a subsidy from the taxpayer,” said the Regulator.

“Fee levels for the 2016/17 regulatory year must also remain sufficient to support the necessary enforcement and compliance programmes, and build on the ongoing work to maintain and improve regulation. Having considered all of the factors that contribute to the current and future size of the industry, and in particular taking into account the general stabilisation of the market, the Regulator proposed that fee levels should remain unchanged for 2016/17.”

The Regulator has continued to show its teeth in 2016. In January, it revoked the licence of Falcon & Pointer, a CMC in Swansea that made almost 40 million nuisance calls in just three months.

At the time, Kevin Rousell, head of the Claims Management Regulator (pictured), said: “Falcon & Pointer has demonstrated the worst excesses of the industry. This firm clearly set out to plague the public and rip off consumers.

“They ignored warnings by us and the Information Commissioner’s Office, and today have had their licence revoked as a result of that wilful ignorance.”

Mark Dugdale