Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment the Government has made of the ability of debt enforcement companies to fulfil the new warrants of arrest function that is being outsourced.

Existing HMCTS contracts with Approved Enforcement Agencies (AEA) already make provision for AEAs to execute certain categories of arrest warrants. A procurement process is currently underway which will result in the establishment of new AEA contracts. That procurement process is also exploring the potential to further extend the volume of arrest warrants executed by AEAs. HMCTS will fully evaluate all proposals submitted by potential AEAs as part of the bidding process before making a final decision on this.