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NCC & OFT
NCC Report - At a Crossroads
In June 2005 the National Consumer Council (NCC) published a paper entitled "At a crossroads: getting the UK car servicing and repair sector back on track"
The paper claimed that the car servicing and repair sector causes significant consumer detriment, which may cost consumers as much as £4 billion a year, or nearly £11 million every day. The paper added to the government's own mystery shopping research which indicated that half of garages offer a poor standard of service.
The NCC paper concluded that unless the industry introduced an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) Approved Consumer Code of Practice then it would submit a Super Complaint to the OFT. It also recommended that the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) should take steps to introduce ‘regulatory solutions', should the industry fail to introduce a self regulatory Code.
The BERR Retail Motor Strategy Group formed the ‘Sherpa' Code Working Group - to develop and implement an OFT Approved service and repair consumer code for the sector. The RMSG continues to work towards this goal and has developed The Motor Industry Service and Repair Code, which continues to move towards OFT Approval.
The Office of Fair Trading's Consumer Codes Approval Scheme
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) Consumer Codes Approval Scheme (CCAS) is a scheme for approving and promoting business-to-consumer codes of practice. OFT Approved Codes promote and safeguard consumers' interests by helping them identify better businesses and encourage those businesses to raise their standards of customer service, bringing them real commercial benefits.
All OFT Approved Codes must meet the criteria set down by the OFT and go through a two stage application process before the OFT will approve a Code. The Motor Industry Code of Practice for Service and Repair has achieved Stage 1 of the CCAS and Motor Codes is working with the OFT to achieve Stage 2. This includes a period of time during which Motor Codes Limited need to satisfy the OFT that the Code is working in practice.
When the Code achieves Stage 2 approval and becomes an OFT Approved Code, Code Subscribers will be able to display the OFT Code logo, a sign that consumers can trust the garage will deal fairly with you should any problems arise and that the garage has agreed to comply with the obligations contained within the Code.
To learn more about the OFT Consumer Codes Approval Scheme see www.oft.gov.uk/codes