Defence Business Services (DBS) Debt Management Legal Support and Tracing Services

The MOD’s Defence Business Services (DBS) require Legal Support to provide Debt Management and Tracing Services to recover Crown Debts from private individuals and commercial organisations located throughout the UK and in some cases internationally.

1. DBS require a complete debt recovery solution which maximises debt recovery potential from a broad customer base including: serving Military personnel; Veterans; Private Individuals and Commercial Entities who are based in the United Kingdom or Internationally and therefore the provider must be able to provide legal support in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is anticipated that there will be approximately 350 cases per annum.

Requirement

2. Provide advice on recovery of difficult, complex and disputed debt and support with debt management activity including the provision of legal defence representation for the MOD if required.

3. Provide support with pre-legal debt collections and recovery including Issuing a ‘Letter Before Action’

4. Assess a case and advise on the strength and legal cost to determine likelihood of recovery including obtaining Financial Statements from Debtor

5. Supplier to prepare and submit all relevant court forms as an example: Claim Form, Evidence Pack and Particulars of Claim.

6. Initiate the enforcement of judgements if payment is not received within 14 days of the County Court Judgement including the issue of:

a. A Charging order

b. An Order for sale

c. A Warrant of control

d. An Attachment of earnings

e. A High Court Enforcement (for debt over £600 not regulated by Consumer Credit)

f. Provide advice and support with Insolvency or Bankruptcy proceedings including:

i. Serve a statutory demand on the individual that owes a debt

ii. Prepare and submit a bankruptcy petition.

g. Advice and Support with Winding up proceedings for companies including:

i. Issue statutory / letters of demand

ii. Prepare and submit a winding–up petition

h. Advise and support with Defended actions

i. Advise and support with Mediation and debt compromise

j. Advise and support with Debt Collection Arbitration

k. Advise and support on legal cases to cover all jurisdictions subject to debtors’ place of residence and where laws might differ.

l. Advise and support on legal cases that require representation in court

m. Advise and support on the DBS position where the subject has entered a debt management scheme/trust deed.

n. Advice and support on the implementation of a Second Charge on a property and the lifting of the Charge on settlement of debt.

7. Provide a full and comprehensive tracing service with a report to include:

a. Listing of assets

b. Any liabilities such as CCJ or charging orders etc

c. Current employment status

d. Current contact details e.g. Email, telephone number and confirmation of address.

8. Assessment of existing cases that are currently in recovery.

9. The services will require the supplier to handle and store Personal Data and therefore there are a number of Security and Protecting Personal Data requirements, details can be found in the Statement of Requirements. Additional information: All documents associated with this procurement can be accessed free of charge on the Defence Sourcing Portal (DSP) https://contracts.mod.uk using Project number 711077450 Details of how to register on the DSP can be found at https://contracts.mod.uk/web/user-guide.html. Suppliers wishing to Tender for this requirement should submit their Tender on the DSP in accordance with the instructions contai