The Insolvency Service has issued a release after speaking at the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA) conference on 28 November 2024 in Manchester that Consumer Duty Services (CDS) supported.

Dean Beale, CEO of The Insolvency Service (IS), opened their slot. He made the comment:

"IVAs are an important part of the personal insolvency landscape, but poor practice is in nobody’s interests, and we all know that it needs to be addressed."

Claire Hardgrave, the Head of Insolvency Practitioner Regulation for the IS delivered some powerful messages on their report. The research analysed 310 randomly selected IVAs which had been both registered and terminated between 2021 and 2023 and found that 60% showed evidence of poor practice in the early stages.

She said:

"There is no doubt that the findings of our independent research raised concerns among many groups within the IVA industry. But it also provides a robust base of evidence to show that real improvements are needed.

"I’m hopeful that the findings will provide helpful insight, identifying for insolvency practitioners changes to practice, training and governance that will make a difference to vulnerable consumers."

Her final slide referred 'thematic' work, an updated IVA protocol ahead of Christmas and some collaborative work with the Money and Pensions Service on dispelling IVA myths in the near future.

Claire supported the recent CDS event in Manchester on IVA sustainability on 3 October 2024 along with IPA chief inspector, David Holland, who also spoke at the IPA conference.

Peter Wordsworth of Consumer Duty Services participated in a panel session on the sustainability of IVAs after Claire's update. Kevin Still chaired the session with John Fairhurst of PayPlan and Peter Bowen of Aryza also on the panel. We are due to publish our responses to the Slido questions that we did not have time for. 

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