Clause 90
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [Lords]
1:00 pm
Henry Bellingham (Shadow Minister, Constitutional Affairs; North West Norfolk, Conservative)
I have a quick question about the clause. This part of the Bill is headed “Information requests and orders”. Given the title of the clause 90, I am intrigued by the wording of the provision because it states that a person who is the creditor in relation to a judgment debt
“may apply to the High Court or a county court for information about what kind of action it would be appropriate to take in court”.
In my experience of such issues, albeit many years ago, I should not have thought that there was any need to apply to the court for the information. It should be readily available anyway. Is the clause simply a back-up measure for that small number of extremely rare cases when the information is not readily available so that, if a creditor wants to enforce a debt, he would have to take the matter to court by way of an application to find the information? Will the Minister elaborate on the process?