Description

Ms Sun Xueling, Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Social and Family Development has recently made her second reading speech for the proposed Debt Collection Bill 2022. This Bill responds to the high number of police reports focused on debt collection companies, especially as the action of collectors has caused alarm and nuisance. The Bill aims to strike a balance between protecting individuals and their rights and allowing the legitimate commercial activity of the collection of unpaid debts. This presentation will focus on the Bill, providing a summary of its background and provisions. It will also give the participants the opportunity to discuss the legal and social ramifications of the Bill and the impact it will have on debtors, creditors and the industry more generally.

About the Speaker

Dr Gardner is a Fellow of Private Law and College Lecturer at St John’s College, University of Cambridge. As well as her position as an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at CBFL, Dr Gardner held visiting positions at Princeton University, Columbia Law School, Max Planck Centre for International and Comparative Private Law, the Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (University of Birmingham) and Griffith University, Australia. She holds an LLB/BIntRels (Griffith), an LLM (Government and Commercial Law) (ANU), and BCL/MPhil, DPhil (Oxon). Dr Gardner’s thesis on the regulation of high-cost credit was supervised by Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart (Oxon) (who holds a fractional appointment at NUS) and examined by Sir Ross Cranston and Professor Christopher Hodges, passing with no corrections. In addition to her academic roles, Dr Gardner is an accredited arbitrator who specialises in aviation and telecommunications disputes.