Clause 3Duties of a responsible person where a property is on the market
Homes Bill
3:00 pm
Mr Nick Raynsford (Minister of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions; Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman ignores my key point that I was making: the provision exists to be a deterrent. I have said repeatedly that would expect the more extreme sanction of prosecution to be used only in cases of persistent and wilful breach of the law—for example, if an agent has chosen deliberately on a number of occasions not to provide a seller's pack. In the case of an individual who has unknowingly failed to provide a seller's pack or has accidentally forgotten to put an item in the seller's pack, the most likely response of trading standards officers, if it were brought to their attention, would be to issue nothing more than advice or a warning. That seems to be compatible with the fast-track procedures that we want, while retaining the deterrent of knowing that an agent who wilfully and repeatedly breaks the law risks criminal prosecution.
Such an arrangement is compatible with the Property Misdescriptions Act 1991 and is comparable to procedures used in New South Wales. The hon. Member for Cotswold was not paying full attention earlier, so I remind him that, unlike the authorities in New South Wales, it is not our intention to add hard labour to the other penalties that would apply.
I hope that the Committee accepts that there are sound policy reasons for having an effective system that can be enforced to prevent widespread malpractice, that the penalties should be proportionate, and that the right mechanism to achieve that is to allow trading standards officers considerable discretion to make an appropriate response when they believe that the provisions have been breached. I invite the Committee to accept that clause 3 should stand part of the Bill.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 3, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.