On 10 July 2023, the government published the response to its ‘Reform of the Consumer Credit Act (CCA)’ consultation, which was carried out between December 2022 and March 2023.

The document provides an overview of the feedback to the consultation and outlines the government’s proposed next steps. It says that, overall, stakeholders were supportive of reforming the CCA and the government plans to move forward with an ambitious overhaul of it. As a next step, the government will be undertaking policy development to produce more detailed proposals, with a view to publishing a second stage consultation in 2024 to seek further feedback.

Robert Thompson, CCUA Chair, comments:

“As we said in our original consultation response, we agree that updating and reforming the Consumer Credit Act would be beneficial, particularly to increase flexibility in our fast moving, modern environment. 

“However, that comes with its own challenges. The current structure has evolved from decades of interpretation, clarification and court decisions, which provide certainty to both the industry and consumer alike. Yes, there is room for improvement in many areas, but we must take care that the search for flexibility does not give rise to a period of uncertainty. There also needs to be balance and fairness to all concerned. The devil will be in the detail and extreme care needs to be taken with all aspects.

“The Association looks forward to continuing to provide our thoughts and guidance based on the extensive knowledge and experience of our civil court user members and will certainly be actively engaging with the next consultation.”