ADR legislation: more musings

bazster

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI, Trading Standards with a fancier name) points out that by October 2015 all traders must furnish consumers with whom there is a dispute with the details of an "ADR entity" competent to resolve the dispute:

http://www.tradingstandards.uk/extra/news-item.cfm/newsid/1788

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/542/pdfs/uksi_20150542_en.pdf

Bizarrely traders are not obliged to use ADR, but nonetheless they must provide details of the ADR entity.

This is a big problem for PPC's because the Act defines an ADR entity in its own terms i.e. it must be an entity approved by a "competent authority" (usually CTSI itself) and in order to become approved it must meet the criteria set out in Schedule 3 to the Act.

PoPLA nearly but not quite meets those criteria, the IAS is a million miles away. So unless the IAS and PoPLA are brought up to scratch, PPC's are going to have to find another ADR entity which they can provide details of to consumers, in addition to continuing to offer IAS or PoPLA as required by their CoP.

Which sounds a pretty unlikely scenario, so making PoPLA/IAS "fit for purpose" is what will have to be done.

Unless, of course, HMG dodges the issue by proclaiming that the corrupt and spineless DVLA is the "competent authority" for the private parking sector hence PoPLA and the IAS are already approved "ADR entities". I would not put that past them!

n.b. I don't know where the October 2015 date comes from, I can't find it in the Act. A literal reading of the Act suggests that the information requirement is already in force.