Applying Behavioural Insights to Environmental Agency Debt Collection: A Field Trial

This document describes an evaluation of the effectiveness of a behaviorally informed reminder letter designed by the Strategic Behavioural Insights Team at Defra to improve debt collection for the Environment Agency (EA). The policy aimed to reduce outstanding debt by incorporating behavioral insights into the debt collection process. The evaluation used an experimental methodology, comparing the redesigned reminder letter with the standard version. Results indicated no significant difference in repayment rates between the test and control groups, with the type of debtor (natural person or business) being the only significant variable. The study suggests that light-touch behavioral interventions may not be effective in increasing repayment rates and emphasizes the need for further research to understand corporate behavior and design more targeted interventions. The evaluation also discusses the importance of including a large number of observations in future trials and the potential cost-effectiveness of such interventions. **This summary was written by an AI model and therefore should not be considered a definitive summary of the report. If you are aware of inaccuracies, please email evaluation.registry@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.**

Description

• Lead department: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra)
• Evaluation stage: A complete evaluation report
• Other departments: No other departments listed
• Evaluation types: Impact evaluation
• Impact methods: Randomised control trial (RCT)
• RCT methods: No RCT methods listed
• Grant information: This intervention is not distributing funding via a grant
• Government Major Project information: This intervention is not a major project
• Policies: No policies provided

Event Dates

• Event Name: Publication of final results
• Event date: December 2020

Evaluation Costs

• Cost: Not provided

Evaluation sharing

• Link(s) to published report(s): Yes
• Links to evaluation plans: No link provided
• Findings: Not provided
• Permission to share confirmed: Yes