Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of requiring all retailers to participate in the Consumer Ombudsman service.

The Government recognises that creating an environment where businesses respect consumer rights is essential to ensuring markets work for all but that getting satisfactory resolution can sometimes be difficult.

The ‘Modernising Consumer Markets’ Green Paper seeks to strengthen and improve the enforcement of consumer rights, including access to ombudsmen and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) services.

The Green Paper asks whether there should be an automatic right for consumers to access ombudsmen and ADR services in sectors with the highest levels of consumer harm. BEIS officials will assess and report back to me in the autumn where and in what sectors membership of an ombudsman or ADR service might be mandated in order to improve consumer outcomes.