The organisation striving to keep the regulation of claims management companies away from the government has expressed optimism that it can attract enough support to achieve the task, following a meeting of the industry.

The Claims Standards Council (CSC) said at a conference of more than 150 claims companies, law firms and insurers held in Birmingham last week that it was inspired by the number of delegates who attended and suggested they would be willing to fund a voluntary scheme.


'We are happy that we seem to have some remit for voluntary regulation,' chief executive Anthony Burns-Howell said.


The conference followed warnings from the Department for Constitutional


Affairs (DCA) that it would impose regulation unless the industry got its house in order by the end of 2005.


The CSC is in need of financial support as the DCA ruled out any government funding to set up a voluntary regime. DCA head of costs Kevin Rousell said such funding would fly in the face of the principle of sector bodies paying for regulating themselves. 'We don't give money to the Law Society, the Bar Council or anyone else,' he argued. 


The Law Society, meanwhile, indicated that it was looking at whether to advise law firms only to accept accident cases from claims management companies that adhere to a set code of conduct.


Fraser Whitehead - a partner at national firm Russell Jones & Walker, who represented the Society at the conference - said: 'If a statutory code of conduct approved by the Office of Fair Trading emerged, the Law Society would consider whether it should then require solicitors to only deal with intermediaries who operate by that code.' The CSC's draft code is currently with the office for approval.


Brian Raincock, chairman of insurer Litigation Protection, predicted: 'Provided that it can be shown that the movement is under way, it is likely the government will be adequately reassured that voluntary regulation will fill the current void.'