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As we said in our response on the setting up of the commission, this is an area that is still quite unregulated and people are not adhering to debt collection codes of practice or the code of practice of the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers.
The new body will have to have a perspective on that and may also have the responsibility of developing new codes of practice, so its ability to provide advice will be important.
For example, they recently issued five codes of practice under the Terrorism Act 2000 but remembered to send only two of them to us for comment prior to their being affirmed in Parliament.
As a result, we would need to have a coding for those who came under the student loans scheme and a separate code, calculation and bureaucratic burden on business for the Scottish graduate endowment scheme.
However, it would take time to enact new legislation, so I have been persuaded to give the industry a last chance to make a voluntary code of practice work. I am therefore accepting the proposal in the report for a code of practice.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders pointed out to the Social Inclusion, Housing and Voluntary Sector Committee that in Scotland, lenders comply with the mortgage code, which is monitored by the independent Mortgage Code Compliance Board.