The Compensation (Claims Management Services) Regulations 2006

Investigation of offences against section 4(1) of Act: requirement to provide information

32.—(1) Before requiring a person to provide information or documents for the purpose of investigating whether a person has contravened section 4(1) of the Act, the Regulator must consider whether investigation is justified.

(2) If an allegation of such a contravention has been made, the Regulator must consider whether the allegation—

(a) is on its face credible; and

(b) taken with any information offered by the complainant in support of it, is sufficiently detailed and specific for an investigation to be practicable.

(3) In all cases the Regulator must take into account—

(a) if the person alleged or suspected to have contravened section 4(1) has applied for an authorisation under section 5(1)(a), or has sought exemption under section 6, of the Act, the application or request, its result and anything else in the Regulator’s records about it; and

(b) anything else in the Regulator’s records that is relevant (for example, anything that tends to establish a pattern of allegations against, or apparent contraventions by, the person).

(4) For the purposes of paragraph (3)(a), the Regulator may consider material in, or the result of, an application or a request for exemption even if the application was for authorisation to provide, or the exemption was sought in relation to, another kind of regulated claims management service than that in relation to which the contravention is alleged or suspected to have occurred.