Mr. Stephen Bell:

The figure we referred to previously related to those customers who were not paying and not engaging and in respect of whom we had not yet commenced the legal process. That figure has reduced to 14% or 15%. When we came before the committee on the last occasion, we said that the nature of the target regime meant it was likely banks would prioritise legal action in order to hit their targets. We made it clear that we were not including anything in our targets that related simply to sending a threatening letter. The figures we gave related to cases where lawyers had actually been appointed. We were talking about a formal commencement of the legal process. We gave a figure of some 4,300 cases where the legal process had commenced, and I recall indicating to the committee that I did not expect that number to rise significantly.

That has not been the case. The number has remained broadly flat. By comparison, in our first mortgage arrears target regime submission on long term payments we outlined that we had approximately 2,061 long term arrangements in place. This has risen to more than 5,200 since then. Again, as I stated on the last occasion I appeared before the committee, we expect to see a dramatic shift towards long term solutions rather than further legal action.