Civil news: changes to the HPCDS contract

We are making two changes to the HPCDS contract.

What does this mean?

The following contractual changes will commence on the 1 November 2021 and will initially be in place until the 30 April 2022. The arrangements will be reviewed on a 6 month rolling basis.

• Providers will now be able to claim both the HPCDS fee and the Legal Help matter start fee when a client assisted through the HPCDS goes on to be assisted under Legal Help

• Where a provider attends court for a possession listing and no clients are seen (i.e. a nil session) or only 1 client is seen they will now be able to claim as though they have seen two clients (i.e. two HPCDS fees will be claimed and paid)

These rules will apply to all claims made under the HPCDS from 1st November 2021 irrespective of when the listed hearing took place.

The revised contract can be found at Standard civil contract 2018 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Further information

The revised HPCDS provider guidance and reporting tools can be found at Housing Possession Court Duty Schemes (HPCDS) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Further information Standard Civil Contract 2018 – 2018 civil contract documents are available on GOV.UK