Commentary Claims Management Services Section 139: Power to impose penalties on persons providing claims management services
335.Section 139 enables the Secretary of State to make regulations which allow the Claims Management Regulator to impose a financial penalty, in addition to the Regulator’s current powers in relation to imposing conditions on or suspending or cancelling an authorisation.
336.Subsection (7) provides that regulations made by the Secretary of State in relation to financial penalties must include provision about how the amount of the penalty is to be calculated and may specify a maximum and minimum amount. It also requires any such regulations to provide that the income received from the financial penalties be paid into the Consolidated Fund. The regulation-making power also allows for costs of enforcement or collection of the financial penalty to be deducted before the income is paid into the Consolidated Fund. Regulations may also provide that financial penalties may be enforced as a debt.
337.Subsection (8) extends the jurisdiction of the First-tier Tribunal to include consideration of appeals against a decision of the Claims Management Regulator to impose a financial penalty, the amount of a penalty or any date by which it is required to be paid. The Tribunal will be able to require an authorised person to pay a penalty and to vary the date by which any payment, or part of it, is due. This is in addition to the Tribunal’s existing powers to impose or remove conditions, suspend or cancel an authorisation or to remit the matter to the Claims Management Regulator.