Strengthening the Financial Inclusion Strategy with CCJ Data

The UK Government’s Financial Inclusion Committee (FIC) is currently working on a national strategy to tackle barriers that prevent households and individuals from accessing affordable and appropriate financial services. Its focus spans digital inclusion, savings, insurance, affordable credit, problem debt, and financial education – with dedicated sub-committees on digital access, credit, and insurance.

At Registry Trust Ltd. (RTL), we were especially pleased to see problem debt included as a core area of focus. Our unique role as the operator of the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines gives us a view of financial distress across the UK. With 5.5 million County Court Judgments (CCJs) currently on the Register, and some communities with one judgment for every six adults, CCJ data are an indicator of financial health and vulnerability.

The Register is an important part of the economic data infrastructure of the UK and promotes trust and confidence in commercial relationships. CCJs are an indicator of financial vulnerability and consumers’ ability to access financial services. A judgment can limit someone’s ability to access affordable credit, secure housing or in some cases even obtain employment. That is why we believe CCJ data, and the insights they provide, could be helpful to the government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy.

Our recommendations

We have identified a series of relatively simple but high-impact improvements to the Register that we think would make it a stronger tool for financial rehabilitation and inclusion:

1. Mandatory reporting of satisfied judgments
   • As recommended in the 2021 Woolard Review, creditors should be required to report when a CCJ has been satisfied (repaid) or partially satisfied. Currently, only around 12% of judgments are marked as satisfied in the Register. There are likely to be a number of reasons for this, including inability to pay, but importantly also because the burden falls on the defendant to notify the court that a debt has been paid, with proof of payment. Shifting responsibility to creditors, particularly bulk claimants, would – in conjunction with adjustments by credit reference agencies and users of credit scores - improve the accuracy of credit data and support financial rehabilitation.

1. Recording partial settlements
   • Mechanisms should be explored to mark judgments as ‘settled’ when debts have been partially repaid. This would give creditors and policymakers a fuller picture of repayment efforts and reward those working to resolve their debts.

1. Improved data fields for accuracy and policy insight
   • Company number: Ensuring company numbers are provided in the Register would strengthen matching of commercial judgments to credit reports, helping small businesses recover debts and improving data quality for credit reference agencies.
   • Date of birth: Encouraging bulk claimants to include this information could help improve data matching, reduce errors and enable better analysis for financial inclusion policies.

1. Greater transparency of claimant information
   • We are looking forward to the government’s forthcoming secondary legislation to add claimant details to the Register. We believe this could help defendants understand the origin of their debt and improve policymaking, particularly in regulated sectors such as consumer credit and utilities.

Why it matters

Our data show that over 87% of judgments remain unsatisfied, despite the fact that half of unsatisfied consumer judgments are for amounts under £750 This points to both the financial vulnerability of many households and the potential for a better process of ensuring that more CCJs are marked as satisfied to support financial rehabilitation and better reporting.

The burden is not evenly spread. The North East faces 44% more judgments than expected based on its population size, while London and the North West are also disproportionately affected. Meanwhile, regions like the South East are seeing rapid growth, with CCJs up 54% over the past decade. These regional disparities matter; they show that problem debt is not only widespread but also deeply uneven – and a one-size-fits-all approach will not be enough.

Our commitment

Registry Trust is a non-profit organisation, operating the Register on behalf of the Ministry of Justice and other authorities across the UK and Ireland. As stewards of this unique dataset, we are committed to using our insights to inform better policy and practice. Our mission is to provide and use public data for the public good.

We believe the Financial Inclusion Strategy is a real opportunity to strengthen financial resilience across the UK. By adopting these straightforward recommendations, the Government can help ensure the Register plays its full role in enabling fair access to credit, financial rehabilitation and true inclusion.

We would welcome the opportunity to share our proposals in more detail with anyone interested.