Clause 113
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [Lords]
3:15 pm
Vera Baird (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Redcar, Labour)
There is a huge amount of difficulty in defining people who are vulnerable in order to set up any type of register at all. In this context, we are countenancing a person who is in a period of protection or is in the currency of a debt repayment plan, which restricts the ability of a qualifying creditor—a creditor with a qualifying debt—to take any action at all to recover their debt. A series of restrictions bite on those qualifying creditors, and they are, as I have said already to the hon. Member for Braintree, two sides of the coin. The debtor will pay and the creditors will forbear. Quite separate from that structure, there are rules that stop domestic utility suppliers disconnecting services. They must not do that here when they are a qualifying creditor, as is laid down clearly in the provision. More generally, people cannot cut water off without the courts’ consent and I am reasonably sure that the same applies to any utilities, but I am not certain. However, that is a broader point. In this case, utilities that are qualifying suppliers must not take that action to deal a debtor.