Stakeholder Notice: July 2008
1. This Notice provides an update on implementation of the Consumer Credit Act 2006 (CCA06). It relates specifically to the Consumer Credit (Information Requirements and Duration of Licences and Charges) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 and OFT guidance on post contract transparency requirements under the Consumer Credit Act (as amended by CCA06).
Consumer Credit (Information Requirements and Duration of Licences and Charges) (Amendment) Regulations 2008
2. These Regulations amend the Consumer Credit (Information Requirements and Duration of Licences and Charges) Regulations 2007 in order to correct some drafting errors and clarify some provisions in the Regulations to ensure that they fully reflect our original policy intentions. We have also taken the opportunity to update certain provisions to take account of developments since the 2007 Regulations were made. These relate to the website operated on behalf of the Competition Commission where details of home credit loans can be compared and to the information contained in the OFT’s default information sheet, both of which were produced after the 2007 Regulations were made. The Amendment Regulations were made on 2 July and laid in Parliament on 4 July. They will come into force on 1 October 2008, together with the majority of the provisions in the 2007 Regulations. They are now available on the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/uksi_20081751_en_1. The 2007 Regulations can be found at www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2007/uksi_20071167_en_1.
3. After the 2007 Regulations were made, stakeholders raised some concerns about the way in which some of their information requirements provisions worked and asked for some amendments to be made to them before they came into force. As a consequence of these representations we decided to take forward some limited amendments and invited comments in our March Stakeholder Notice on a draft. The Amendment Regulations take into account views expressed following the issue of that draft.
4. Further details about the amendments being made can be found in the Explanatory Memorandum and the Impact Assessment (specifically in the Annex) which were published with the Amendment Regulations.
5. As the Amendment Regulations correct errors and clarify provisions in the 2007 Regulations all those who ordered the 2007 Regulations from OPSI will be sent the Amendment Regulations free of charge.
OFT guidance on post-contract transparency requirements under CCA
6. OFT issued high level guidance on the post-contract transparency (PCT) requirements on 26 June. This guidance takes into account the CCA06 provisions on PCT which come into force on 1 October and can be found on the OFT’s website: www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/cca/PostcontractinfoThe OFT will shortly update this guidance in light of the new Consumer Credit (Information Requirements and Duration of Licences and Charges) (Amendment) Regulations 2008.
Further information on the Consumer Credit Act 2006
7. Either visit the BERR website or email CCA.06@berr.gsi.gov.uk