Much is written these days about the need for more and better accountability. We believe that public services can best express their accountability by listening to their stakeholders and improving what they do as a result, and there are lessons from a most unlikely source: a bailiffs company. Bear with us on this.

Claer Lloyd-Jones and Associates, a team of governance experts including the Centre for Public Scrutiny, have recently completed an audit of the ethical governance and behaviour of Marston Group, a judicial services company which collects debt on behalf of a wide range of clients, including many local authorities.