FINES AND COMPENSATION ENFORCEMENT

That this House applauds the work of staff in the National Crime Enforcement Service who have continued to improve collection rates of fines and compensation set by the criminal courts despite cuts to staff; welcomes moves to give staff access to data held on defaulters by HM Revenue and Customs to help further improve collection rates; notes that it is not always possible to recover every debt due to insufficient information on the defaulter being available or because of their personal circumstances such as homelessness; is alarmed by reports from Citizens Advice Bureau regarding the behaviour of poorly regulated private bailiffs who fall short of public sector collection rates of 2013 and are only collecting 22.7 per cent of fines arising from distress warrants in full; is concerned that the Government is seeking to use uncollected fines as a reason for privatising this well performing public service; and urges the Government to scrap its plans to privatise under the Compliance and Enforcement Service Project.