On 5 December 2023, HM Treasury published a Policy Note setting out its proposal to make a statutory instrument (together with a draft statutory instrument) giving the Financial Ombudsman Service the power to impose charges on professional representatives (including solicitors, barristers and claims management companies) making complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
If the draft statutory instrument is laid before Parliament, it will be subject to the usual parliamentary process. If made in the form of the draft, it will allow the Financial Ombudsman Service to decide the circumstances when a professional representative will be responsible for paying a case fee (at the moment only a respondent can be responsible for a case fee).