If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll already know that there is a strong appetite for reform in the bailiff industry, which makes my relief at reading the much awaited response to the Ministry of Justice consultation even greater.

Although it has taken a little bit longer than we had hoped, a new simplified fee structure will take effect towards the start of 2014 (barring intervention from meddlesome 3rd parties), and we can finally start working towards building a trustworthy and ethical image for the whole industry, in a way in which I am proud to say that Dukes Bailiffs has long championed.

After reading a recent article in The Telegraph into the so called “aggressive” nature of the UK’s bailiff industry, it seems clear that the introduction of the long awaited reforms is the only way for our profession to move forward and step beyond these often misguided accusations.

It is fair to say that the law governing bailiffs is out of date. As the article rightly states, there has been very little substantial change to the basic principles of the law of distress for many years, and this lack of progress has produced some of the problems that we now face.

There’s no doubt that the current economic situation is having an incredibly damaging effect on households across the world, although the citizens of Spain have certainly felt a disproportionate amount of the pain.

Nothing demonstrates this more than the recent suicide of a woman in Spain, who sadly died after a Spanish bank’s decision to foreclose on her property.

This is obviously a tragic and complicated event with which we have the utmost sympathy, although it was difficult not to feel dismayed by the undue emphasis in the international press on the presence of bailiffs at the time of her death.

It’s hard not to sympathise with local authorities as they try to fulfil their obligations on the collection of debt while under pressure to maximise recovery rates, on reduced budgets and often in pursuit of persistent debtors.

For bailiffs, “agents” of the local authority for whom they work, they must share the responsibility for probity and collection rates whilst suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous defaulters.

The bailiff industry has made considerable efforts to sharpen up its act and in April 2011 the two existing professional organisations, ESA and ACEA, came together in a single body, the Civil Enforcement Association (CIVEA) under a newly-appointed Director General Dr. Steve Everson.

Over the past few months a delegation from CIVEA has been in regular meetings with the Ministry of Justice and a consultation document has been issued. According to the MoJ the paper sets out “a fair, transparent and sustainable costs regime that provides adequate remuneration”.

Until such a regime is introduced, however, the increasingly competitive nature of collection and enforcement tenders is leading some local authorities into what is dangerous territory, by accepting the practice known as “fees last”.