The IAS fails ADR reporting requirements

The "Independent" Appeals Service is an Alternative Dispute Resolution entity, and as such has to abide by the requirements of The Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes
(Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015. One of these is to produce an annual report.


Ongoing information obligations of an ADR entity

11(2) An ADR entity must, within a month of the first anniversary of the approval date and within
a month of each subsequent anniversary, publish on its website a report (“an annual activity
report”) relating to the preceding year which contains the information in Schedule 5.

SCHEDULE 5 Regulation 11(2)
Information to be included in an ADR entity’s annual activity report

a) the number of domestic disputes and cross-border disputes the ADR entity has received;
b) the types of complaints to which the domestic disputes and cross-border disputes relate;
c) a description of any systematic or significant problems that occur frequently and lead to
disputes between consumers and traders of which the ADR entity has become aware due
to its operations as an ADR entity;
d) any recommendations the ADR entity may have as to how the problems referred to in
paragraph (c) could be avoided or resolved in future, in order to raise traders’ standards
and to facilitate the exchange of information and best practices;
e) the number of disputes which the ADR entity has refused to deal with, and percentage
share of the grounds set out in paragraph 13 of Schedule 3 on which the ADR entity has
declined to consider such disputes;
f) the percentage of alternative dispute resolution procedures which were discontinued for
operational reasons and, if known, the reasons for the discontinuation;
g) the average time taken to resolve domestic disputes and cross-border disputes;
h) the rate of compliance, if known, with the outcomes of the alternative dispute resolution
procedures;
i) the co-operation, if any, of the ADR entity within any network of ADR entities which
facilitates the resolution of cross-border disputes.

The annual report was due on the IAS website on 1st November 2016. The Prankster has confirmed this with a request to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, the body who oversee ADR accreditation.

As of the 2nd November 2016, the report was not available on the IAS website.

The IAS is therefore in breach of its statutory requirements.

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The Parking Prankster