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More PI Delay

by msecadm4921

SIA regulation of private investigators (and precognition agents in Scotland) has been further put back by the government. Meanwhile, bailiffs look like coming under the SIA.

As reported in the March issue of Professional Security, April 30 was the (already put back) date for Home Office publication of the ‘full impact assessment’, the next step towards licensing of PIs after consultation last year over how or if to proceed. Professional Security understands that a Government decision on regulation of investigators is not imminent.

A 34-page response to the consultation paper Regulation of Enforcement Agents (bailiffs) was published in March.

The consultation, by the Ministry of Justice, set out three options for regulation of the bailiffs including a preferred option: regulation by the SIA. It was claimed that a new regulator, that could have been called the Enforcement Services Commission, would cost more and take too long to set up. The ministry spoke of a ‘powerful independent regulator’, training for bailiffs to stamp out what the government terms ‘cowboy practices’, and qualifications to raise standards. Justice Minister Maria Eagle said: "People have a right to recover their debts, but no-one should have the right to threaten, bully or intimidate people just to collect cash they are owed. Regulation of bailiffs is an important part of protecting householders in disputes over debts and fines and will ensure only licensed agents are able to enter a property." The summary of responses does suggest though that any bailiff regulator would have an overlap with Her Majesty ’s Inspectorate of Courts Administration; and the Local Government Ombudsman. The document does add that the government ‘will need to look in detail at the different complaints procedures’, which will not be a role for the SIA. In regulating wheel clampers, where as with bailiffs there is potential for complaints from people on the receiving end, the SIA has not got into individual cases. As for what the SIA makes of debt collectors, a non-private security extra sector to licence, that there was not a sniff of when the authority was set up, an indication came last year in the SIA’s ‘Corporate and Business Plan 2007/08 to 2009/10’ which gave January 2008 as a date for a plan for licensing PIs – ‘subject to the outcome of public consultation’ – but did not mention bailiffs.

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