Claim production centre
CPC Code of Practice
1. Introduction
1.1 The Claim Production Centre (CPC) is governed by The Civil Procedure Rules Part 7, rule 7.10(3) and supplemented by Practice Direction 7C (Annex A).
1.2 The purpose of the CPC is to relieve county courts of much of the routine repetitive work associated with the issue of straightforward money claims. The CPC accounts for the court fees, produces the claim, creates the court's record and then envelopes and despatches the claim to the defendant.
1.3 This document sets out the Code of Practice to be followed when issuing through the CPC. Organisations that can comply with this code and provide their claim information in a fixed format on magnetic media (see section 4) may issue their claims through the CPC. The CPC aim is to produce and despatch claims from requests received on magnetic media on the day of receipt.
1.4 The term "Centre User" will be used throughout this document to be a claimant issuing its own claims, possibly using an in-house solicitor, or it may be a solicitor who issues claims on behalf of many claimants.
1.6 The term "CPC Manager" will be used throughout this document to indicate the officer in charge of the CPC or another officer acting on his behalf.
2. Role of the Claim Production Centre
2.1 The CPC shall handle such functions relating to the production of claims and other related matters as the Secretary of State may direct.
2.2 The initial business of the CPC shall be limited to the issue of claims and associated county court documentation from requests to issue presented on magnetic media by the Centre User. For ease of reference the magnetic media will be referred to as "data file" throughout sections 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the Code of Practice. The data content for each data file is specified at Annex C. Each data file shall be unlabelled and confirm to ANSI Standard and ASCII Format.
2.3 The Centre User shall restrict all requests for issue of claims through the CPC to the type of work set out in Practice Direction 7C (Annex A). In particular, claims are limited to defendants who reside or carry on business within the jurisdiction, that is, in England or Wales.
2.4 For any purposes connected with the issue of claims the CPC shall act on behalf of the county court whose name appears on the claim or in whose name the claim is requested to be issued.
3. Authority for Issue of Claims through the CPC
3.1 A claimant or solicitor acting on behalf of the claimant (a potential Centre User) shall give notice to the CPC Manager of his intention to issue claims through the CPC.
3.2 The CPC Manager shall confirm whether a potential Centre User may issue through the CPC. Upon giving such confirmation he/she shall allocate a distinguishing number known as the National Creditor Code or 'CPC Number' to the Centre User.
3.3 The 'CPC Number' shall be used at the CPC to identify the Centre User and authority for Centre User to issue through the CPC.
3.4 Where a Centre User is permitted to issue claims through the CPC, the CPC Manager shall allocate a range of claim numbers to the Centre User. These numbers will be unique throughout the County Court system. The Centre User shall assign a separate claim number from this range to every claim submitted for issue through the CPC.
3.5 Each claim request submitted by the Centre User for issue by the CPC shall contain the necessary party and claim details as set out in Annex B (This conforms to existing county court guidelines and failure to comply may result in withdrawal of the authority to issue through the CPC.)
4. Use of Data Files for Claim Issue
4.1 The Centre user shall submit all requests to issue claims to the CPC on data file.
4.2 The data file options supported by the CPC shall be limited to:
(A) three and a half inch MS-DOS formatted high density diskette, written normally or using the PKZIP compression utility or
(B) Electronic file transfer (see or request separate document "Electronic Transfer for Northampton Bulk Centre Customers, Customer Information Pack")
(C) Electronic file transfer by secure email is coming soon. To use this facility the Centre User shall apply for a secure email account prior to using the CPC from the following website: http://www.cjsm.cjit.gov.uk/, following the procedure to sign up. We will let you know when this service is available
4.3 Each data file submitted by the Centre User to the CPC shall consist of header information, identifying the Centre User and data file number, followed by the request data for each of the claims to be issued, and trailer information containing control totals at the end of the data file.
4.4 Prior to the submission of requests to issue claims on data file, the Centre user shall submit test data files for processing by the CPC. The accuracy of the output produced from the test data files shall be confirmed as acceptable by the Centre User and the CPC Manager before live claims issue may commence.
4.5 The Centre User shall submit an advice note with each data file. The advice note shall include:
- CPC Number
- Number of requests on the data file
- Total fee amount payable
- Date of the data file
- Sequence number to uniquely identify the data file (see example at Annex D)
- a signed Statement of Truth
4.6 Failure to produce an advice note will result in delay to the processing of the data file.
4.7 Where the data file is sent by FTP, the advice note may be sent by fax or by email to Customer Service and must reach the CPC by 10am. Failure to receive the advice note will result in delay to the processing of the file.
4.8 The Centre User shall give the CPC Manager reasonable notice of any occasion on which he desires to issue more than 3,000 claims on one day. The CPC Manager reserves the right to offer alternative claim issue dates if other data files of over 3,000 claims are already booked for the date requested by the Centre User.
4.9 Where advance notice has been given, the Centre User shall submit a maximum of 12,000 claim records per data file.
5. Data Input Requirements
5.1 The CPC Number shall be quoted by the Centre User on all data files sent to the CPC for processing and included on any written correspondence.
5.2 The Centre User shall provide the name of the authority for the particulars of claim in advance to the CPC. If there are circumstances where a Centre User uses more than one name, each new occurrence of the name shall be treated as a new Centre User (e.g. different solicitor acting).
5.3 Where the same claimant details are to be used on all claims issued by a Centre User, then these details may be given in advance to the CPC.
5.4 Where a Centre User is a solicitor or uses a different correspondence name and/or address from that given in the claimant details then such details shall be given in advance to the CPC.
5.5 Claim Numbers from the range allotted to the Centre User by the CPC Manager shall be assigned sequentially by the Centre User to any claims included on the data file sent for processing. Each claim number from the range shall be prefixed by a year identified e.g. 5 for 2005. At the beginning of a new calendar year the Centre User shall revert to the first number in the range for the succeeding years issue and change the year identity to reflect the new year.
5.6 The Centre User shall provide the claim data on each data file in claim number order. Each claim number shall be used once only by the Centre User.
5.7 The Centre User shall use the CPC supplied court code number to identify the court in whose name each claim shall issue. A list of the CPC court codes is included at Annex E.
5.8 If the Centre User submits more than one data file at a time each data file shall have the standard header and trailer records which relate to that individual file and must be accompanied by a separate Advice Notice.
5.9 The Centre User shall include an ascending sequence number on each header record to ensure that no file is processed twice. Each customer will start with sequence 001 and increment each file by one until 999 reached, then revert back to 001.
5.10 Filenames on data files will be in the format '9999xx.999'. The first set of numbers will be the Centre User's code, the two characters will be ss for claims. The file extension will be the sequence number.
5.11 Data files for processing will be contained in zipped file and the naming convention for zipped file will be 999 999.zip. The first set of number will be the centre number and the last set of numbers will be the file sequence number.
6. CPC Processing Requirements
6.1 The Centre User-supplied data files shall be validated by the CPC to ensure that all necessary fields have been entered, that the fees have been correctly calculated, that the costs are within the scale allowed and that the claim numbers have not been previously used.
6.2 The date of issue of the validated claims shall be determined by the CPC. Where the data file and Advice Notice are both received by 10:00am the date of issue shall be the same as the date of receipt. In all other instances the date of issue shall be the next working day following receipt.
6.3 A summary issue/service notification shall be produced by the CPC for each data file processed and despatched to the Centre User (example at Annex F).
6.4 The claim documentation shall be printed by the CPC from the information on the data file and from claimant, solicitor and particulars of claim authority details supplied in advance by the Centre User.
6.5 Each claim shall be issued in the name of the court supplied by the Centre User. Where the Centre User supplies a court which has been closed, or which is not present within the courts listed at Annex E, then the request to issue shall be rejected and shall be reported as not issued.
6.6 Where validation errors on the data file exceed a maximum of 10, the CPC shall return the file to the Centre User with details of the errors found and confirmation that no claims have been issued (see example at Annex G).
6.7 The CPC shall effect service of all valid claims on the defendant by first class post within 2 working days of the date of issue of the claim. The claim will be deemed served on the defendant on the fifth day after issue, regardless of whether that is a Saturday or Sunday.
6.8 Notice of non-service shall be given by the CPC to the Centre User on all claims returned by the Post Office as undeliverable. The CPC shall forward the undelivered claim to the Centre User and advise the appropriate county court. The Centre User shall pursue all proceedings subsequent to issue at the court named on the claim.
7. Accounting Requirements
7.1 Fees for issue of claims at the CPC shall be payable at the CPC.
7.2 Payment for fees for issue of claims shall precede or accompany the receipt of the data file by the CPC.
7.3 Centre Users may maintain a fee deposit account with the CPC or submit payment by single cheque for each data file of claim fees. Alternatively, payment of fees can be made via BACS. Full account details will be supplied on request.
7.4 All cheques should be made payable to "HMCTS".
7.5 Any underpayment of fees shall result in the Centre User being asked to submit a further cheque within 3 working days. In cases of substantial underpayment the CPC Manager may decline to issue the claims until the balance of fees has been supplied.
7.6 Where no fee deposit account is maintained by a Centre User at the CPC any overpayment or refund due to rejected requests shall be refunded by the CPC by payable order as soon as the input data has been rejected.
8. Troubleshooting and Frequently Asked Questions
8.1 All downloads of data files are carried out by our IT contractor. The CPC staff are not technically trained, and are only able to escalate problems to our contractor as a last resort, and where every other avenue has been explored. Therefore, if you experience technical difficulties, you will first need to contact your own IT provider.
CPC Family Tree
CPC Team Leader
Telephone: 01604 619497
Email cpc@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk
CPC Customer Liaison Officer
Telephone: 0845 408 5310 or 01604 619527
Email cpc@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk
CPC Clerk
Telephone: 01604 619529
Email cpc@hmcts.gsi.gov.uk
Questions CPC Customers Frequently Ask
Q: What is the telephone number that we dial to send files?
A: 01604 630476
Q: Can the courts IT provider visit us to help with IT issues?
A: This is not within their contract with HM Courts Service. If we are unable to answer your query, we will raise a call with the Helpdesk. We will then relay their answer to you.
Q: When are the claim forms sent out?
A: They are issued electronically through the CPC, printed and posted out from our issuing site usually on the day the file was issued. However, the service rules assume that the claim is issued on day 1, posted on day 3 and therefore deemed served on day 5.
Q: How do I know my claims have been issued?
A: An electronic issue notification detailing how many cases were issued and what fees are due will be placed into the folder of all customers who issue by electronic transfer. Issue notification reports are also posted to all customers.
Q: How do I pay the court fees?
A: Please make payment by cheque or BACS, payable to HMCS. Payment should accompany the file or can be paid to the CPC within 5 working days of issue. A deposit account can also be held with the CPC and we will deduct fees on the day of issue.
Q: Can I send claims and judgments on the same file?
A: Judgments, warrants and paid records can be sent on the same disk, but claims must be sent separately. If you issue electronically, all records can be sent in separate files within the same zipped file.
Q: Can you send me a statement of my deposit account?
A: Each time the CPC deducts fees from your account, we send you a breakdown on your issue notification. This details the previous balance, how much used and your new balance and acts as you statement.
Q: How do I send my advice notes to CPC?
A: You may fax your advice notes to 0845 408 5311 or email them in a Word format to the CPC customer service email address. They must be with the CPC before 10am if you wish your file to be processed the same day.
Annex A - Practice Direction 7C
Annex D - Data file Advice Note (Word 0.00Kb)
Annex E - List of County Court Code Numbers
Annex F - Issue Notification (Word 0.00Kb)
