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Dear Stakeholder,
Welcome to the second issue of the CCD Bulletin. This edition marks the transition from the expert working groups to preparation for the formal consultation.
Tord Johnsen
Project Manager for the CCD implementation
Since early summer 2008, BERR has engaged with the credit industry and consumer interest groups in informal expert working groups. These groups completed their initial work in November and recommendations were put to Ministers in December. A short summary of the outcome for each group can be found on our websites. This sets out the basis on which we will be consulting and fulfils the BERR commitment to keep stakeholders abreast of developments.
Although the working groups have provided invaluable help in identifying the issues which have needed consideration, unfortunately, with a couple of exceptions, relatively little information on the financial impact of transposition and, in particular, of specific options where we have a degree of flexibility, has so far been forthcoming. This is, therefore, an important aspect of the work on which BERR will be liaising further with stakeholders.
In the coming weeks, the BERR team will be putting together the consultation document which will form the basis of the mandatory three-month formal consultation (starting around Easter). As indicated above, an important and challenging aspect of this work will be to put together an initial impact assessment.
Changes in legislation – Our legal advisers have begun their consideration of how existing UK legislation might be amended. It is becoming apparent that the complex interaction with existing legislation and the need to consult Parliamentary Counsel on the impact which amendments will have on primary legislation are making it more difficult than expected to give a definite date for the publication of the draft regulations at this stage, although it remains our firm intention to make these available as soon as possible. We will not, however, allow any delay in producing draft regulations to hold up the formal consultation on our policy proposals.
Transposition workshop – In November, the European Commission held a transposition workshop. We had understood that the European industry was likely to ask the European Commission for further time to implement the Directive. However, at the transposition workshop the Commission communicated this as a plea to Member States to speed up their transposition. The United Kingdom was alone in suggesting that the time available to industry would be insufficient and the Commission gave no indication that it would consider any delay. On a more encouraging note, some of the answers given by the Commission to specific questions were helpful. These are covered in the update on specific articles annexed to this bulletin. Another workshop is planned for March this year, but so far a date hasn’t been set.
Impact assessment – BERR still seek to engage lenders in submitting detailed costs of the implementation. This would help inform the mandatory impact assessment, and improve the quality and accuracy of the formal consultation. So far, a few stakeholders have been forthcoming, but we welcome input from all stakeholders.
As mentioned above, we are aiming to launch the formal consultation around Easter. This consultation will last for 12 weeks and will be followed by a formal Government response. We will issue this response within a maximum of 12 weeks following the end of the consultation period, but this is expected to be considerably shorter. The response time will depend on the reactions to the consultation paper. If completely new issues are brought to our attention, we will obviously need to consider these in terms of impact on existing legislation and compatibility with the CCD and we will have to take a view on whether we need to go out to a supplementary consultation. In any event, we aim to lay the regulations before Parliament in the period between mid to late October and late November, depending on the impact of the formal consultation. This should give approximately 7 months of legal certainty even if we make the regulations in November.
BERR and OFT are currently working on a plan for creating regulatory guidance. It is envisaged that this will assist the lending industry get a better understanding of the new requirements as early as possible in the implementation process. In this work, we will engage with the lending industry to seek out priority areas where guidance may be more necessary than others.
The next CCD Stakeholder Meeting will take place on 10 February 2009.
Although we have not planned any further stakeholder working group meetings, we envisage that we will be consulting members of working groups already set up on an ad hoc basis on specific issues which arise in the process of drafting the consultation document and/or draft regulations and on the important matter of impact assessment.
