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Guidance

Guidance to licensing authorities

Our guidance for licensing authorities.

Published
1 April 2021

Last updated
8 December 2021 - Changes

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Contents

Our requirements

The process of special measures is commenced by the Commission and requires a licensee to meet the following requirements:

  • the licensee must acknowledge and accept the failings
  • key persons must attend a formal meeting and explain why there are failings and what will be done immediately to mitigate the risk of consumer harm
  • a formal action plan detailing improvements to be made must be submitted within five days, this plan should implement controls that immediately mitigate the risk of consumer harm

The Commission will consider the submitted action map and decide whether it appears acceptable. A further short extension may be given if some alterations are required (not more than two days) to enable agreement on the suggested revision. Following this, the licensee is required to adhere to the following requirements:

  • report weekly on the progress against the action plan and meet the deadlines proposed
  • complete the action plan within three months
  • pass one of our compliance assessments after three months
  • calculate how much they have financially benefited from non-compliance and propose how they will divest themselves of this amount.

Cases which we do not believe suitable for special measures will not enter this process and will be subject to the usual suite of regulatory action. Where there is evidence that consumers may be at significant risk of harm, we will consider suspending licensable activity immediately and special measures will be deemed inappropriate.

Special measures are appropriate where the licensee has reached the threshold for an s116 review but the Commission determines we have a very high level of confidence that there is no or limited ongoing risk of consumer harm, with demonstration of early acceptance of failings and a clear, proactive commitment to swiftly remediating the failings.

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