HM Courts and Tribunals Service: Enforcement

(asked on 25th June 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the level of charges added by Approved Enforcement Agencies to the original financial penalties imposed by criminal courts in each of the last four quarters.


Answered by
Paul Maynard Portrait
Paul Maynard
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 1st July 2019

Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) does not collate this information at a quarterly level. Data received from Approved Enforcement Agencies indicates that they recovered £28,169,343.39 in fees from Warrants of Control over the period 1st April 2018 – 31st March 2019. The fee, which varies for different processes is paid by the debtor direct to the AEA on top of their original fine.

The level of fees that an Enforcement agent may levy are set out in The Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014, SI 2014 No1 to ensure transparency and consistency.

We take the recovery and enforcement of court fines very seriously. Courts already have the power to issue warrants through enforcement agencies, and we have robust processes in place to ensure enforcement agents comply to the same standards as HMCTS staff.

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