Baroness Jolly
Main Page: Baroness Jolly (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Consumer Rights Bill
Baroness Jolly Excerpts(9 years, 6 months ago)
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Baroness King of Bow (Lab)
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Taverne, makes a persuasive argument, to which I listened with great interest. It is interesting to note that we use metres and kilometres for our athletics, miles per gallon for our cars, pints for our milk and beer, miles for our speed limits, feet for our height measurements, and our distances are often measured in yards. As the noble Lord pointed out, we have been hemming and hawing on this issue for 800 years, so I doubt that we will sort it out in the next eight minutes. Suffice it to say that Amendment 81 would safeguard a critical element of British heritage, not to mention a key aspect of British identity—the right to buy beer and milk in pints. For some reason, the self-esteem of the British people depends on it. I thank the noble Lord for bringing this issue before us. As my noble friend Lord Harris said, the motivation behind these amendments is entirely helpful. I hope that we will get a thoughtful response from the Minister and I look forward to returning to this on Report.
Baroness Jolly (LD)
My Lords, I start by reassuring noble Lords that a statutory framework for the use of units of measurement is already in place. The Weights and Measures Act 1985 requires the use of metric units for any regulated transaction, with the following exceptions—draught beer and cider, bottled milk and precious metals, where we still use the troy ounce. These are required to be sold in imperial units. In addition, the Units of Measurement Regulations 1986 list all the legal units available for any other purpose. The Weights and Measures Act applies to any unit or measurement in use for trade. This is intended to apply not just in the transaction itself but to any use in connection with, or with a view to, trade. That would already cover most advertisements or product descriptions for goods. I hope that noble Lords will be reassured by this. I am certainly very keen to avoid any possible confusion for consumers, businesses or enforcers. I am concerned that businesses might be confused by duplication of existing requirements, particularly if that were to result in reduced levels of compliance as businesses were uncertain about which set of rules they must comply with. Having a single set of requirements on units of measurement, as we currently do, all under the weights and measures framework, makes it easier for businesses to know where to look for the rules and how to comply with them.
Baroness Jolly
My Lords, this is the first amendment to Part 2 of the Bill covering unfair terms, so allow me to set the scene. Part 2 responds to the Law Commission’s recommendations to the Government on how to improve the rules around contracts between a business and a consumer. The aim of this part is to provide clarity for business and consumers, resolve uncertainties and avoid lengthy court disputes in the future. The basic framework remains the same: terms in a consumer contract must be fair and they must be plain and intelligible. A court can decide whether a term is fair or not, but the “core bargain”, what you pay for and how much it costs, is exempt from that assessment in certain circumstances. The legislation also lists certain terms as examples which the court may look at, known as the “grey list”.
What are we changing in this Bill? I would draw the attention of noble Lords to two particular changes. First, we are making the “small print bigger”: price and subject-matter terms must be transparent and prominent to avoid a court being able to consider whether they are fair. That requirement for prominence to avoid assessment is new. Secondly, we are adding three new types of term to the grey list. These are the types of term which are always assessable for fairness. We are adding terms which permit the trader to claim disproportionately high sums in compensation or for services which have not been supplied where the consumer has attempted to cancel the contract. These are also known as early-termination clauses. We are adding terms which give the trader discretion to decide the subject matter or price after the consumer has become bound by the contract. These additions were recommended by the Law Commission and based on evidence of consumer detriment and case law.
I turn to the amendments specifically and, first, Amendment 55A. As I am sure the Committee is aware, one of the other ways in which this part of the Bill increases consumer protection is by bringing consumer notices into the scope of the fairness test and transparency requirement which currently apply only to consumer contracts. We based our explanation of what constitutes a “notice” on the current regime, specifically the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. We make clear in Clause 61(8) that a consumer notice,
“includes an announcement, whether or not in writing, and any other communication or purported communication”.
I can therefore reassure the Committee that “notice” has this broad definition, meaning more protection for consumers.
We have been asked whether the provisions in Part 2 include general statements such as adverts which are not made to a particular consumer but to all consumers. Such notices are covered by the unfair terms part of this Bill where they relate,
“to rights or obligations as between a trader and a consumer, or … purports to exclude or restrict a trader’s liability to a consumer”—
as stated in Clause 61(4).
I also remind the Committee that Part 2 complements other protections. First, this Bill makes clear that certain information the trader gives the consumer forms part of a contract for the supply of goods, service or digital content. For example, in relation to a contract for a service, Clause 50 provides that where a trader gives a consumer information about a service they are offering, and the consumer relies on that information in deciding to enter the contract, the trader must comply with that information. Secondly, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 are already in place to protect consumers from being misled by a trader. I can therefore reassure noble Lords that the definition of “notice” has a very broad scope and that a wide range of notices are covered by Part 2 of the Bill. Both Part 2 and the other provisions and regulations will protect consumers from being misled.
On Amendment 56FA, concerns have been raised today that our drafting of the exemption will allow traders to surprise a consumer with additional charges after a contract has been agreed, without those charges being assessable for fairness. I do not like these surprises any more than noble Lords do. I would rather know about them upfront so I can shop around to avoid them. That is what the new requirement for “prominence” will allow. Traders should make such charges prominent when they enter into a contract. There should be no surprises. If there are, the consumer or a regulator can challenge them in court. Through that new requirement, consumers will for the first time have significant protection from unfair terms in the small print.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, mentioned drip-pricing. The Bill will help protect consumers from drip-pricing, alongside the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 which say that these extra charges must be clear and comprehensible before the consumer buys. In contrast, were we to allow only the main price to be exempt from assessment for fairness, traders might just bundle all their charges under the headline price. That is not beneficial for consumers or creating a competitive marketplace. The Law Commission recommended to us in 2013 what you see in the Bill now. It considered this a careful balance between protecting consumers and allowing the market to operate. The Government agree with that view; we need an unfair terms regime that works in practice.
On Amendment 56FB, which would change the requirement for prominence under Clause 64, concerns have been raised that our current definition allows terms to be “hidden in plain sight”, where a consumer could see and read a term because of its prominence but still not appreciate its significance. We recognise that consumers rarely read terms and conditions and that those who do may not fully appreciate how they will impact them. After thorough consultation we agreed with the Law Commission’s recommendations that the way to tackle this was through transparency, prominence and the maintenance of the grey list—that is, the list of terms which are always assessable for fairness. In answer to the concern of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, about customers being irrational, I understand that the Minister has responded by letter to the University of Warwick academics on this particular point. I am not sure whether the noble Baroness has seen a copy of that letter.
The grey list is key to protecting consumers from terms which they may not fully appreciate when agreeing to a contract because it covers such a very wide range of such terms. We are therefore making clear in the Bill that terms on this list are always assessable for fairness. We are also adding three terms to the list, again on the recommendation of the Law Commission, thereby protecting consumers from three additional types of term that they may not fully appreciate when they agree to a contract. Finally, we are taking a power in the Bill to allow us, after parliamentary scrutiny, to update the grey list. That means that were consumer or trader behaviour to change, we could add terms to the grey list to accommodate that.
I agree with noble Lords that consumers might not appreciate all the terms when agreeing a contract, but I think that we have already addressed this in the Bill as drafted. I hope that I have explained our reasoning for accepting the Law Commission’s recommendations for the construction of Clause 64 and I therefore ask that this amendment be withdrawn.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that response. As she says, this is the first time that we have discussed this provision. I also thank my noble friend Lady Drake for her professional and expert intervention; this is her area. Among the details which she so rightly raised, she used the phrase “transparency alone is not enough”. I think that that is the problem that we still have—that transparency and prominence are highly welcome but, by themselves, are not enough.
I very much welcome the expansion of the grey list. I think that there was a half-offer there that we could see the letter that was sent in reply to the Warwick University Business School, so I thank the Minister. I particularly welcome something that I am not sure I had noticed—it is confession time—which is the ability to update the grey list. We might return to this on Report after we have read those words carefully to see whether we would still like to tweak it at that stage, although it may be that we will want to do it later. I think that some points are still not sufficiently well covered. For the moment, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Lord Stoneham of Droxford (LD)
Briefly, I lend my support to this amendment. Most of the points have already been made but wherever uncompetitive activity is trying to distort a market and deprive market entry to competitors it should be exposed and eliminated. Internet access should be open and consumers buying that service expect it to be so. Can the Government really achieve their objective of an open market without considering this amendment? Selective blocking is abhorrent to innovation and generally has uncompetitive motives. Consumers are not fully aware of the practices when ISPs and mobile providers undertake inhibiting their services. Ofcom has already indicated that it would welcome more clout against the blocking of or economic deterrents for internet services. It recognises that these practices should be unacceptable. The voluntary code of practice should be given statutory support.
Baroness Jolly
The noble Lord, Lord Deben, says that this is a tricky issue and he is clearly right. One of the tricky bits of this amendment is that many aspects of internet behaviour can be fitted under these amendments. The ones in my comments relate to those of the noble Lord, Lord Best, in which people using voice over internet protocol have been wrongly charged for it. Nobody wants to see that situation but I question whether there is a need to change the law to tackle such behaviour as we have good and robust protections in place for consumers.
I also understand that companies which block services such as Skype no longer offer packages that do so, except on legacy tariffs, so these terms and conditions should not apply. I also understand that the regulator Ofcom has been in dialogue with the providers, and that there is a commitment to review the wording in their terms and conditions to ensure that these are not misinterpreted in this way.
The noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, asked about the assessment of the two-tier internet. The Government’s intention is to ensure an open, secure and safe internet. Where some services are blocked, we want to see transparency. However, our experience is that competition is working. The proposals in the US are informed by the US market. The UK’s market is very different, so we watch with interest to see what the FCC will do.
More broadly, the Government and industry through the Broadband Stakeholder Group have done a great deal of work together to ensure that there is greater transparency. For example, two industry codes of practice have now been developed. This, coupled with the UK’s highly competitive telecoms market, has been very successful in ensuring that there is no consumer detriment caused by traffic management problems.
I hope that this gives some reassurance to noble Lords proposing the amendments. However, given their wide applicability, it makes an awful lot of sense to convene a meeting on this issue with interested parties before Report. Therefore, I ask the noble Baroness to withdraw the amendment.
Baroness Thornton
I thank the Minister and the noble Lords, Lord Deben and Lord Best, for their remarks.
I was getting quite cross until I heard the Minister read out her last paragraph, as I thought that her remarks showed a level of complacency which I do not think is justified. As the noble Lord, Lord Deben, said, this is a complex area. I would certainly like to take the Minister up on her offer of discussions before the next stage of the Bill. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Baroness Jolly
Perhaps I may reassure noble Lords that where conflict of interest is an issue in particular sectors, the Government have taken action. As I am sure noble Lords are aware, in November 2008 the then Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, appointed Lord Justice Jackson to lead a fundamental review of the rules and principles governing the costs of civil litigation and to make recommendations in order to promote access to justice at proportionate cost. Lord Justice Jackson published his final report in January 2010 and the recommendations are being taken forward in a variety of ways. A number of measures required primary legislation, and some of the major reforms are in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. Other reforms will be implemented through rule or policy changes.
Part 2 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act implements recommendations made in Lord Justice Jackson’s review. No-win no-fee conditional fee arrangements have been reformed, but remain available. They provide a means of funding legal cases for those who could not otherwise afford them. That part also provides that for personal injury cases, referral fees are prohibited. This ban covers both the payment and receipt of such fees, which means that a firm cannot benefit through referring a customer to a particular third party. In effect, this removes the incentive on the trader to refer a consumer to a particular third party, just as this amendment would do. The ban captures all of the main businesses involved: solicitors, claims management companies and insurers. Any breaches of the ban will be subject to appropriate regulatory action by the relevant regulators, which are the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the FCA and the Claims Management Regulator. This regime has been in force since April last year.
Provision is also made in the Act for a power to extend the prohibition to other types of claim and legal services beyond personal injury claims. However, the Government do not intend to use this. There is no evidence that such a ban is needed in other sectors. I hope that that reassures the noble Baroness and I would ask her to withdraw the amendment.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town
I thank the Minister for her reply. I have worked on referral fees a lot and of course this is not quite the same. It is not about the payment of referral fees, but about a law firm which is dependent for the volume of its work on being referred by an insurance company. I made no allegation whatever that a referral fee was being paid. The problem is that if the insurer is putting all its cases to one or more lawyers on its panel, that sets up a potential conflict of interest for the law firm which wants to remain on the panel.
I know that the Minister will not be able to answer my next point now, but she has talked about claims management companies. She will not be aware, because she was not the Minister at the time, that another amendment I did get through was that complaints against claims management firms should be able to be made to the Legal Services Ombudsman. I think that that happened around 18 months ago, but the SI has still not come before your Lordships’ House. Despite this House having taken the decision—a very wise decision, I have to say—that complaints against claims management firms can be made to the Legal Ombudsman, the MoJ has been so tardy that we still do not have the SI. I am sorry to get that in as a dig, but we are still waiting for it. It is really important in these sorts of issues.
As I say, it is not referral fees that we were touching on in this. It is about being absolutely certain that when you pay for insurance to cover legal representation if anything happens, that legal representation should be absolutely non-conflicted and should act for the driver concerned. For the moment, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment, but if the Minister could talk to her colleagues in other departments, and if they could move on the complaints against claims management firms going to the Legal Services Ombudsman, many people would be very grateful.
Baroness Jolly
My Lords, let me take each of these amendments in turn. First, on Amendment 56FC, the Government of course agree wholeheartedly that vulnerable consumers should be protected. The existing consumer protection regulations protect vulnerable consumers from misleading and aggressive practices. They take into account whether a practice is directed at a particular group and whether that group is particularly vulnerable when considering whether a practice is misleading. On 1 October this year the Government amended those regulations to make it much easier for consumers who have been the victim of such practices to get redress. The Government have also ensured that there is support available for those who need help understanding their finances or their financial options, for example through the Money Advice Service and citizens advice bureaux.
However, one of our aims in Part 2 of the Bill is to create a regime that protects consumers but which traders can work in practice. I am not sure whether the noble Lady would agree, but I do not think that a trader can be expected to know the social, cultural and linguistic characteristics of their customer; and, in many cases, the customer would not want to share the detail. Many contracts are now agreed remotely online or over the telephone, a practice that greatly benefits the consumer through speed, ease and efficiency. However, in such cases the trader cannot know the specific details of who it is contracting with, and I am not sure that we should be encouraging it to ask that information of the consumer either. Even in a face-to-face transaction, a business might need to spend considerable time assessing the social, cultural and linguistic status of a consumer, and even after that there will be uncertainties about how accurate that assessment was. This is a process that consumers themselves may not appreciate, as the Association of British Insurers pointed out in its evidence to the Bill Committee in the other place. Some consumers already begrudge the time spent purchasing insurance and the length of the documentation they receive.
I am aware that the language proposed is used in other legislation, such as the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. However, it would not be practical to use the same definition of “average customer” here. That is because those regulations are for unfair trading practices. A trader who, for example, uses advertisements to mislead consumers will know at whom it is targeting those advertisements. Indeed, it can choose who to target and what type of consumer to engage with. The Law Commission examined that issue in its 2013 report and recommended the definition we see in the Bill. Like noble Lords, it strongly supported a definition that works in practice.
I am pleased that Amendment 56G gives me an opportunity to talk about Schedule 3 to the Bill. This schedule is vital to ensure that the consumer protection regime is enforced effectively. As the noble Baroness said, rights need to be not only understood but enforced. It provides for a tailored, specific enforcement regime for the law on unfair terms. We have taken the current enforcement regime under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations 1999 and worked with the Law Commission and our stakeholders to improve and update it. For example, we are making it clear for the first time that enforcement action can be taken against consumer notices, such as those seen in retailers’ car parks, that seek to deny all responsibility for theft from or damage to cars parked in them. We have also taken a national approach to unfair terms enforcement in Schedule 3. This Bill will reduce consumer detriment by £2 billion a year.
Schedule 3 includes a key role for the Competition and Markets Authority, as the noble Baroness mentioned. It sits at the heart of enforcement work on unfair terms across the regulatory landscape and has the power to issue guidance on what traders need to do to comply with the law in this part of the Bill.
I can reassure noble Lords that the CMA will publish on its website details of specific enforcement action taken. It is also required by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 to publish and lay before Parliament an annual report that covers among other things its enforcement activity in the previous financial year. Traders, consumers and other enforcers can also ask the CMA for this information during the year. Of course, for noble Lords, and for Members in the other place, the benefit of having the annual report laid in front of Parliament means that noble Lords can challenge the CMA on its work.
The department also regularly monitors consumer detriment in order to inform policy. I am pleased to say that a report on consumer detriment, drawing on survey responses from real consumers across a whole range of sectors, was published earlier this year and is available on the GOV.UK website. I have given noble Lords several examples of the CMA’s work that we think would not call for either of the two amendments that the noble Lords are suggesting, and I therefore ask that the amendment be withdrawn.
Baroness Jolly
I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Clement-Jones for tabling these amendments and to my other noble friend for speaking to them on his behalf.
I realise that these amendments are closely related but I will take each in turn, starting with Amendment 57A. Noble Lords asked why we are not changing the scope of the Unfair Contract Terms Act in the Bill to apply to business-to-business intellectual property contracts. This is because this Bill is about consumers. We want to have a one-stop shop where consumers can go to find their rights. Adding business-to-business contracts would dilute this for consumers, making the law more complex and reducing its accessibility. Having rights for businesses in the Unfair Terms part of the Consumer Rights Bill may also be confusing for businesses.
We sympathise with the situation in which some small businesses find themselves. However, we have not yet seen evidence that amending the Unfair Contract Terms Act in this way would address the issue. We would need substantial, quantitative evidence of a problem to make this change. We would also need to be sure that amending the Unfair Contract Terms Act in this way would solve the problem my noble friend raises without unintended negative consequences.
My noble friend Lord Stoneham raised the issue of consultation, effectively saying that we do not need consultation, we need action. We need to be sure that we get this right, so we need to consider all interests. The creative industries are too important to rush this. They are really critical to the UK economy. The department is aware that this is a live issue, but the Bill is not the place to solve it.
Lord Stoneham of Droxford
Is my noble friend saying that in recognising the issue, the department is prepared to initiate some form of consultation to put this inequity right?
Baroness Jolly
Yes, there was a meeting and the outcome was agreement from the creative industries to provide evidence of the problem and to propose a solution. My noble friend has just said that she is seeing the British Brands Group tomorrow at an IP round table to discuss these issues.
Lord Stoneham of Droxford
I am sorry, that is a separate issue. That is on parasitic brands. I am sorry to confuse my noble friend. Perhaps she could write to me.
Baroness Jolly
I will drop my noble friend a line. I am sorry, that has thrown me. I was given this and told exactly where to slot it in.
Lord Stevenson of Balmacara
Just to pick that up and endorse it, in my researches for today I just happened to check back in Hansard and I felt it was important to reflect on this point. When this was discussed previously, the noble Viscount, Lord Younger of Leckie, said that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, had sent him a paper,
“on how the issue of unfair contracts could be addressed. I confirm at the beginning that I have received this paper and that we will consider his suggestions very carefully. It is a little early to talk about this as a formal review, but I reassure him that we will certainly discuss this and take it forward”.—[Official Report, 11/3/2013; col. 55.]
I am very heartened to hear from the noble Baroness that there has been a meeting. That is a good thing. If evidence was required from the creative industries, I am sure that it would have been supplied, so what is the hold-up?
Baroness Jolly
We can clarify this. The noble Viscount, Lord Younger, had a meeting to discuss this and we have asked for more detail. I hope to be able to come back with more detail on this for noble Lords, certainly before Report.
Moving to Amendment 63A, I would like to add my compliments to those of the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, to my noble friend for speaking to this well-crafted amendment so clearly and for raising the important issue of copycat packaging. This was debated at the Committee stage of the Intellectual Property Bill in June last year and the noble Viscount, Lord Younger of Leckie, said that the Government would undertake a review into this issue.
Baroness Jolly
“section (Enforcement of the duty)(1) of this Act.”
Baroness Jolly
My Lords, I want the requirement for letting agents to publicise their fees to come into effect in both England and Wales as soon as possible to ensure that tenants have some certainty over the payments they have to make. This is why I have laid an amendment putting the enforcement details into the Bill rather than subsequently using secondary legislation. This amendment simply uses the process described in the existing clause but makes it clear that the duty in England and Wales will be enforced by county councils, county borough councils, unitary authorities and London boroughs.
These authorities will be able to fine agents who fail to publicise their fees up to £5,000 for each office and website. Agents will be able to appeal to a tribunal. I recognise that enforcing the requirements for agents to publicise their fees will entail a new burden for English local authorities, so we will make additional funding available for this. Furthermore, authorities will be able to retain the fine, potentially enabling the proceeds from agents who are opaque on their fees to be used to tackle rogue agents where they exist, thus continually driving up standards in the industry. I beg to move.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town
I rise to say “well done”. I should warn the Minister that we will have other amendments on letting agents next week. However, we are very pleased that this will be in the legislation and that it will happen early, by the extra resources, and by the incentive for local authorities to take action, given that they will be able to retain any fines levied. I realise that that is the end of her political career, having had praise from me, but so be it.
Baroness Jolly
My Lords, on behalf of the team I thank the noble Baroness, Lady King of Bow, for her kind words at the outset.
The enhanced consumer measures will give enforcers of consumer law greater flexibility to get better outcomes for consumers. When there is a breach or potential breach of consumer law, the measures available to enforcers can be limited. Prosecutions in the criminal courts can lead to a fine or even imprisonment, while actions in the civil courts can stop the infringing conduct. However, neither option tends to lead to consumers getting their money back, nor does the person who has broken the law have to take positive steps to put right the damage they have caused.
The enhanced consumer measures will allow public enforcers to seek a range of innovative and positive measures in the civil courts, aimed at achieving one or more of three outcomes: redress for consumers who have suffered loss, increased business compliance with the law or more choice for consumers. Measures must be just, reasonable and proportionate. Once they have settled in, we expect the measures to lead to consumers getting around £12 million in redress annually. Although a business might be required to spend money in order to pay redress to consumers, to increase compliance or to provide information to consumers, a simple penalty payable to the enforcer or to the Treasury would not be appropriate.
Turning to the amendment, and to answer the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Harris, we have already committed to a post-implementation review of both the enhanced consumer measures and the changes we are making to trading standards powers in the Bill. Our impact assessments for both state that the policies will be reviewed three to five years after they come into force. In addition, when we introduce the power to extend the enhanced consumer measures to private enforcers, we want to see how the measures bed in, and the experience of public enforcers using them, before deciding whether the use of them should be extended. Clearly, when deciding whether or not to extend the use of the measures, a key consideration will be how often they have been used and the cost to trading standards of using them.
The enhanced consumer measures represent a real change in how public enforcers such as trading standards will approach enforcement. The measures will be innovative and far-reaching. We have already circulated draft guidance on using them to our implementation group for comment.
On the proposal to establish statutory minimum standards for trading standards officers, if not the service itself, local authority trading standards are required to have regard to the Regulators’ Code, which is a statutory code of good regulatory practice. This code makes it clear that regulators should ensure their officers have the necessary knowledge and skills to support those they regulate, and that regulatory activity should be proportionate and consistent. A post-implementation review of the code was undertaken in 2012, and, following a consultation in 2013, an updated and simplified code came into force in April 2014.
The Government have committed to monitor regulators’ published policies and standards to ensure that they are consistent with the principles in the code. There will be a post-implementation review of the revised code to check that it is operating as intended. In the mean time, the Better Regulation Delivery Office offers assistance to all relevant bodies to implement the provisions of the code. At a local level, we think that local authorities are best placed to determine their officers’ competence. They will have a better understanding of local priorities, taking into account new models of delivery or collaborative approaches with businesses and other neighbouring councils.
As I have already said, the Government greatly value the work of trading standards and that is why we have commissioned research on the impact and effect of trading standards on the economy, to build on the evidence base. The research will conclude in the autumn, and the outputs will inform future policy. I therefore ask the noble Baroness to withdraw the amendment.
Baroness King of Bow
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her reply and other noble Lords who have taken part in this short debate. My noble friend Baroness Crawley spoke powerfully about trading standards services as they teeter on the edge of sustainability. Anyone who has worked with them and followed their trajectory over recent spending reviews and spending rounds cannot help but feel that there is a bit of a chasm between what we are talking about in theory here—the laws that we want those trading standards officers to promote—and the powers and resources available to them to do so, not least because, as my noble friend pointed out, their numbers have been halved.
If we are on the brink of ending current services and giving up on proactive work, it does not seem realistic that they may be able to make use of any powers, which is another reason why we feel a review of this sort would be very helpful and important. My noble friend Lord Harris of Haringey gave me qualified support—thank you.
Baroness King of Bow
In moving Amendment 63AA, I shall speak also to Amendment 105J in the names of my noble friends Lady Hayter and Lord Stevenson. Amendment 63AA deals with the implementation group and is interesting, not least because during the Bill’s passage in the other place the shadow consumer rights Minister, Stella Creasy, spoke about the mythical implementation group because often in the other place the answer to every question raised was, “The implementation group will sort it out”.
What will the implementation group look at? It will look at the point of sale information and identify the best way to communicate and teach people about their rights. It will look at a range of ways to ensure that businesses and consumers know what the law is regarding the point of sale questions being asked. It will look at statutory rights, what they mean and how people will be told about them. It will also identify clear, understandable wording, not just how to tell people about their rights but the words used to describe those rights. It will also look at the point of redress. It will answer questions about the information given when someone complains about the goods, service or digital content. We also heard that the implementation group will look at the guidance given to trading standards; it will look at how this will be drafted for a wide range of organisations.
With that said it is clear that the implementation group is not simply an add-on to this legislation. It is integral to the way in which it will work. The Bill is a framework. As we know, most of the law is then implemented via statutory instruments and guidance. Unfortunately, Parliament too often thinks that its job is done at that point, but implementation is really the most important part. The implementation group will be working behind the scenes—for example, preparing businesses. Consumers can be empowered only to know what their rights are, and therefore we need the implementation group to succeed and its recommendations to have bite. The key work of the group relates to Part 1 of the Bill, improving business and consumer education on their new rights and obligations, as well as spending some time informing trading standards officers.
After all that, what do we know about this mythical, important, integral implementation group? It is an all-statutory group. So first, we do not actually know what it is doing. Secondly, without Amendment 105J its recommendations will have no teeth. We hope that the advice of the group would be taken by the Minister to turn into a code of conduct. There definitely should be a statutory code of conduct. We want the implementation group to succeed. I beg to move.
Baroness Jolly
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for highlighting both the work that we are doing on the implementation of the Bill and that this implementation is vital if the measures are to make the differences that we intend.
We have published our plans for implementation online, at GOV.UK, and we have written to all noble Lords about them. These plans have been drawn up in close co-operation with the experts on our implementation group. These are the people who know how this really works on the ground for business, consumers and enforcers. We intend the Consumer Rights Bill to come into force in October 2015. Work to inform businesses of the pending changes in the law will begin in earnest in April 2015. This will include the publication of guidance that is easy to understand and will be supported by the sterling work of trade associations and enforcers to educate and assist businesses.
Businesses will have six months to make any changes to processes and information to meet the requirements under the Bill. They will be able to see at a glance the key changes in the law. They will also easily be able to find more detailed guidance as and when they need it. The noble Baroness rightly emphasised the need for consumers to be aware of their rights, while other noble Lords expressed similar thoughts. As we have said many times, the Government believe that we must ensure that consumers understand their new rights and obligations. That is essential and I know that is something on which we can agree.
That is why we are working closely with relevant organisations, particularly consumer groups, to ensure that consumers have a basic awareness of their updated rights and that they know where to get advice on a specific problem with faulty goods, services and digital content. The primary source of this advice will be the excellent Citizens Advice website and helpline, but of course the work of other consumer groups will be vital and we will work with key organisations to get the message across.