Message from the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA)

Covid-19

IPA team members working remotely, complaints handling, your CPD requirements, information for appointment-taking licence holders and other important information

18 March 2020

As the Government asks the country to respond to threat presented by Covid-19, we at the IPA are doing all we can to help you navigate your business through the uncertainty, and help your clients and creditors to respond in kind.

While we are all adjusting personally, as well as professionally, I am conscious that we all have a lot to think about, and that there is a need to ensure a regular communication flow that answers your queries, gives guidance and steers promptly, while also ensuring that communication levels are kept to a manageable level. I am therefore proposing to write weekly from now on, most probably towards the end of the week, but I may write more often if necessary.

There are bound to be questions we have not covered or that emerge, so please do get in touch if you have any queries at all.

IPA remote working

In light of Monday’s advice from the Prime Minister, and to protect our staff, we as an organisation have taken the decision to work remotely.

We are currently struggling to rearrange post, so please contact the IPA by email. In case you need them, please note the following general IPA email addresses:

·         For finance queries (including payments and refunds), please email [email protected];

·         For membership queries, please email [email protected];

·         For events, please email [email protected]; and

·         For any other queries, please contact [email protected].

Complaints handling

This IPA is operating remotely, and as part of this, we are continuing regulatory and complaints handling functions. If you are in contact with us on a complaint, please continue to do so in the normal way through email.

We recognise that some insolvency practitioner activity may be more challenging when working remotely. We would expect insolvency practitioners to take all the necessary steps to ensure that statutory requirements are adhered to and security arrangements are in place. If you anticipate that you will be unable to fulfil your duties as an insolvency office holder, or if you are concerned about the continuity of your practice (in the immediate or longer term), please contact your usual Regulation Officer or the secretariat email to discuss this as soon as possible.

CPD requirements

Members may have concerns about meeting their CPD requirements in the face of potential event postponements and/or cancellations of events.

We recognise that it might be a challenging year in terms of CPD, so we encourage members to find alternative ways for completing their CPD, such as online sources or further reading. To support this, the IPA is exploring the possibility of developing virtual offerings. We are currently looking at providing a virtual Annual Conference and hope to update you more on this soon.

We are viewing this issue practically, and if you are likely to fall short of completing the required CPD hours, please get in touch with us to discuss.

Normally, the rule is that all licence-holders must gain 50% of their CPD in person, e.g. attendance at conferences. We are lifting this restriction this year.

For appointment taking insolvency practitioners: Alternate/successor IPA licence-holders

As you will no doubt be aware, as an appointment taking licence-holder, you are required to have a viable continuity plan in place in the event that you are, for any reason, incapacitated and unable to do your daily job. As part of that plan, you should have nominated an alternate/successor insolvency practitioner. It may also be useful for you to have a nominated alternate in another practice, and we encourage you to consider this possibility and to inform us of their identity.

It is in the context of the potential impact of Covid-19 on your business that the IPA is taking this opportunity to ensure that our records in this regard are current. Therefore, please respond to this email and confirm the identity of your alternate/successor IP.

Monitoring visits

For the next three months, we will not be conducting monitoring visits on practitioners’ premises. Inspections will take place remotely as far as is practicable. Practitioners who are due a visit during this period may expect to hear from an inspector to make arrangements to supply the relevant information, and personal interviews may take place remotely or subsequently. It may be necessary to adjust the scope of our monitoring during this period.

Other important information

Following the communication on IPA operations and member responsibilities during the outbreak, which we sent to you on Thursday 12^th March, we have produced a regular question and answer document that will be pinned to the news page on our website. Click here to access the document.

Michelle Thorp

Chief Executive Officer

Insolvency Practitioners Association