2024 enforcement statistics and HCE Group’s strong performance

The High Court Enforcement Officers Association (HCEOA) has published the 2024 statistics relating to the issuing and enforcement of writs of control.

We also take a look at how our performance data compares very favourably against the industry averages.

Continued recovery post Covid

In 2019, 120,337 new writs were received, dropping to 84,629 in 2020, when enforcement action was paused for much of the year.

The volume of new writs has been steadily increasing since then, with a strong recovery in 2022. In 2024, 154,095 new writs were issued, almost double the number from 2020 and a 5% increase on 2023.

Payment obtained in full

This has also increased in 2024, with 28,643 writs being paid in full, a 7.3% increase over 2023, but still lower than the pre-pandemic levels of 31,770 in 2019.

However, at almost £122m, the total money collected in 2024, was the highest value ever since 2004 and a 9.5 per cent increase over 2023.

Money recovered value
Over the last three years, whilst the industry average shows the highest ever number of writs successfully cleared, the industry average value recovered (total money collected divided by the number of writs successfully cleared) has decreased, possibly an indication of the recent cost of living challenges:

2024 - £827
2023 - £837
2022 - £997

How HCE Group outperforms the industry average

Based on this data, as a group we have performed well above the industry average.

Here are the three key headline figures that demonstrate our strong performance in 2024:

As a group, we have 22 per cent share of the market, but we collected 27 per cent of all the money collected
The industry average for the proportion of cleared writs that were paid in full was 19.5 per cent, but our rate was 24.3 per cent
The industry average writ value was £827, ours was £1,139 – 38 per cent higher

One of the principal reasons for achieving this level of collection performance is that we continue to use employed enforcement agents. This means that your writs of control are carried out with more diligence, stronger compliance and greater success – as the figures above illustrate.