Background
In March 2019 HMCTS announced that it would be extending the court reform programme by a year, subject to cross-government approval. Following this announcement, we have included further details about what our priorities are for reforming the county court in our regular Reform Update. One of the initiatives we announced as part of that update was the introduction of Warrant of Control Support Centres.
Over the past two years, the county court has seen an increase in the number of applications received to enforce judgments using warrants of control. This increase has highlighted areas in which processes can be improved for those either directly using or affected by the service. As a result, we have created Warrant of Control Support Centres to introduce these improvements.
What are Warrant of Control Support Centres?
Following successful pilots in the North East and North West of England, we are now introducing 12 Warrant of Control Support Centres across England and Wales to centralise and standardise our service. While a number of these centres are now fully operational others are being introduced on a phased basis as we move work into the centres from feeder courts. These centres will engage with debtors early, with the aim of providing support and resolving the warrant as soon as possible, reducing the need for a bailiff to visit the debtor at their home address. Further details of the location of the centres and the feeder courts covered by each of these centres can be found in Annex A.
How will the new process work?
The process for applying for a warrant of control will remain the same; creditors will continue to use the existing application routes of either a paper application form via a local court or an electronic application on Money Claim Online (MCOL).
Following a successful application, the warrant is issued to the relevant Warrant of Control Support Centre. The centre will then manage the warrant for approximately 12 days. During this time, trained staff will:
- Attempt to contact the debtor by telephone or SMS, using any contact details provided on the warrant application form. They will check that the debtor is aware of the judgment; speak to them and inform them that a warrant of control has been issued; and provide them with further information about next steps, available options and signpost them to debt advice services.
- Identify potentially vulnerable debtors and will offer additional support via specialist agencies. If a debtor is identified as potentially vulnerable, still will inform the creditor and ask how they wish to proceed.
- Engage with the debtor to try to resolve payment of the warrant through a variety of options. These are:
- Offering facilities to pay the warrant in full or encouraging the debtor to engage and agree an arrangement to pay directly with the creditor.
- Discuss the possibility of agreeing a longer-term payment plan by completing a statement of means form and suspending the warrant with the creditor’s agreement.
- Making an initial payment and agreeing an informal payment plan (maximum 3 months), which will be managed for its duration by the centre.
- Providing debtors with SMS reminders to prompt them when a payment instalment is due (with the debtor’s permission and in line with GDPR regulations).
If staff at the centre are unable to contact the debtor, or if debtor does not engage, or if the debtor defaults at any time on a payment plan agreed with the centre then management of the warrant will pass back to the local county court and a bailiff will be instructed to visit the debtor at their home address.
Dedicated email addresses have been created for each of the centres and further details can be found in Annex A. These email addresses can be used by creditors to communicate with the centres, but must only be used to
- inform the centre of the intention to suspend a warrant
- respond to a request from the centre for further information or to return a completed risk assessment form
- inform the centre how to proceed with a warrant, following notification that a debtor is considered as being vulnerable.
Please be aware that the email addresses can only be used while warrants are being managed by the centres. Once a warrant has been passed to a local court for enforcement by a bailiff, the existing contact channels for that court must be used.
What are the benefits?
- Ensures that everyone engaging with us receives the same standardised and consistent level of service.
- Provides clearer information about the end-to-end process, options and next steps, enabling users to make more informed choices and decisions.
- Offers improved support and signposting to debt advice services or other specialist agencies, where appropriate.
- Introduces more effective and timely outbound communications and improved inbound contact channels to the centres making it easier to engage with us.
- Provides quicker resolution of disputes, reducing the need for bailiff involvement and doorstep visits.
What to expect next?
Once the feeder courts have fully moved to the new service and all the centres are fully operational we will continue to evaluate performance and make further improvements to the service. The HMCTS reform programme gives us an opportunity to further enhance the service using improved technology and digital application channels. We will engage with the users of our service to help us shape these improvements.
Contacting us
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