The fees for High Court enforcement are set out in law by the Government and have remained unchanged since 2014, despite the Ministry of Justice’s own recommendation that it should be updated annually following the CPI figure for each September (Explanatory Memorandum To The Taking Control Of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014, paragraph 3.3).
In the second half of 2024 we engaged with the new Government to urge it to take action to implement the Ministry of Justice's own recommendations and to resolve the situation it has inherited as a matter of urgency by:
i) implementing the 5% increase in enforcement fees recommended in the Ministry’s Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014 policy paper published in July 2023 (This was due to be enacted in 2024 by statutory instrument but the General Election meant this didn't happen).
ii) introducing a statutory mechanism for enforcement fees to change in line with inflation to avoid this situation happening again in the future, as recommended by independent analysis.
In August 2024 the Minister responded, and noted our concern stating that she planned to consider this issue in detail with her officials and write with a fuller response once she had done so.
We are awaiting a more detailed response.
To date, there has been no change in enforcement fees.
Without action, we are concerned that the enforcement sectior 'funding challenge' is fast becoming a 'funding crisis' if action is not taken soon to implement the Ministry of Justice’s own recommendation on enforcement fees made first in 2014 and again in 2023.
We will continue to proactively engage with the Ministry of Justice about this issue.
