I have just read your article on claims management companies (see [2009] Gazette, 30 July 3). I note that Kevin Rousell appears to believe that the majority of CMCs are trying to ‘comply’ with the referral code.

I note that, in the last year, 386 CMCs had their authorisation either suspended or terminated by the Ministry of Justice. In the light of the fact that the CMC regulations have been in existence for barely a moment, is it not time to ask a more fundamental question: what trust can be given to MoJ registration if, within such a brief period of time, businesses that were authorised have had their authorisation withdrawn? Plainly, the criteria for authorisation have failed.

The stamp of authorisation enables an ‘entrepreneurial’ business sector to wave the badge of state approval while the reality of how business is transacted bears little or no resemblance to the rules and codes that supposedly govern the conduct of business.

If the regulator is to command respect, he should reconstruct the whole regime to ensure that businesses that wish to perform the quasi-legal function performed by CMCs have the necessary integrity before they are authorised.

If this is a pipe dream – that is to say, if a regime cannot be constructed to achieve this – then the existing regime should be scrapped and CMCs axed wholesale.

John Holtom, Managing partner, Legal Solutions Partnership, Luton