Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018

Debate between Lord Snape and Lord Henley

Wednesday 16th May 2018 Grand Committee

[Lord Snape]

I am sorry to interrupt the Minister again but, regarding the question of what constitutes a package, set against linkage, it is not just about going on to a computer and booking a flight. What would happen if I went into a travel agent and said I wanted a weekend in Marbella, they had the perfect flight for me from Birmingham, my local airport, at 6 o’clock on a Friday evening, I booked it and paid for it there and then, but then said, “What about car hire at the other end?” Is that covered by the package, or is that regarded as a linked package and therefore not covered, in the way that getting the whole thing together and paying for it all at once would be? I am sorry if that is a bit complex, but I hope the Minister understands what I am getting at.

[Lord Henley]

I will deal with these points when I get on to the different sorts of coverage. I was broadly trying to get across that we were trying to give coverage where there was not coverage in the past. I believe it was the noble Lord who congratulated the Government on being the first to offer these protections, helping to get these regulations and trying to get a degree of protection for the consumer in them.

I will deal with some of the points raised, starting with the common commencement date. My advice is generally that common commencement dates do not apply to the implementation of EU legislation and, in this case, there was no compelling reason to diverge from that position. What we did—I appreciate that we have taken some time over it—was to give a degree of time. I think that has been useful for the industry and this is why we have gone up to the wire, going up to 1 July rather than doing it on 1 January.

The noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, also asked about the other regulations coming from the Department for Transport, which will be negative regulations. I remind noble Lords of how seamless the Government are in the way they operate, with no silos between departments. My advice is that the Department for Transport expects to publish its final ATOL regulations and the formal government response to the ATOL conversation in the coming weeks. At the same time, they will be laid before Parliament and come into force in line with the implementation deadline of 1 July, so the noble Lord has time and we will try to make sure that we can meet this.

I return to the questions, largely led by the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, on the single point of sale and the complication of the LTAs. Put simply, it is when the same retail premises, the same website or the same telephone service is used to put those together. I appreciate there is a degree of complexity; that is why we hope to provide guidance that will help to explain the concept as far as possible, making it easy for the consumer so they know that they are buying an LTA. Although LTAs do not offer the same level of protection as a package, traders who facilitate putting together an LTA will be required to inform the traveller that they are not buying a package and therefore will not benefit from the protections associated with that package.

We want to make sure that there is appropriate guidance to assist the industry with that concept and, as a result, to assist the consumer and make sure that they are aware that they are buying an ATOL-protected product. The noble Baroness was correct to stress the importance of the initials ATOL.