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Friday 24 June 2022

The Suspicious Timing of The UK Government Review of The Consumer Credit Act

The UK government recently issued a brief press release promising a consultation "by the end of this year" on plans to review the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA). I think you'll agree that the timing and lack of detail is more than a little suspicious.

The release spouts the usual guff about supposed Brexit benefits:

"Leaving the EU has provided additional opportunity for regulatory reform and the government will examine which parts of EU retained legislation can be repealed or replaced to ensure regulation is better suited to the needs of the British people." 

The Economic Secretary also claims that "The Consumer Credit Act has been in place for almost 50 years - and it needs to be reformed to keep pace with the modern world." 

It's a little disingenuous, then, for the press release not mention that the CCA and related regulations were extensively amended in 2010 to implement the EU Consumer Credit Directive of 2008 (CCD1).  

I mean, why pass up an opportunity to blame the EU for legislation you plan to 'reform' all on your own?

It's verging on suspicious that the press release also presents the UK government's review of the CCA as somehow politically independent and part of a more general review of "EU retained legislation" without so much as pointing a finger at the extensive process for reviewing CCD1, which began in 2014 before Brexit was even conceived and culminated in a report in 2020 before Brexit took effect. 

Suspicions are confirmed, however, when the press release makes no mention of the previous week's announcement by the Council of the EU, on 9 June 2022, that it had agreed its approach to a detailed proposal for a new consumer credit directive (CCD2). 

Perhaps the minister is unaware that the UK played a significant role in the development of CCD2? If so, it will come as an enormous surprise when it is revealed that the government has adopted the same approach in its next revision of the CCA, just as it did in 2010. 

But, hey, blue passports!