Clause 4 - Annual and other reports
Enterprise Bill
12:15 pm
Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, Conservative)
We are really steaming through the Bill, Mr. Conway. I hope that the amendments' intent is obvious, but for the avoidance of doubt I shall go through them in a little more detail.
We welcome the production of annual reports by the OFT, including the annual report, but there should be more prescription of what it should contain. Amendment No. 3 specifies that it should include a summary of OFT decisions and investigations in the preceding year; that, for all I know, is the intention, anyway. As the OFT builds up a catalogue of past decisions and investigations, it helps to have such a record, as it tells people in the outside world how it approaches certain situations and about its powers and functions. I hope that such matters will be part of the report.
Amendment No. 4 makes the point, wholly unexceptionally, that the report should contain an assessment of any additional burdens on business because of the exercise of the functions. Again, I shall come back to that in a moment.
I said on Second Reading—I have not changed my mind since—that it stretches credulity that the regulatory impact assessment report on the competition and consumer protection measures in the Bill suggests that there will be no extra cost to business. In any event, the Bill should oblige the OFT in its ongoing work to apply its mind, at least annually—I would hope that it would do so every day or week—to the effect, burden and cost on business that its activities, particularly investigations, will cause. Again, we will return to that theme.
Amendment No. 2 concerns the theme of transparency. The Under-Secretary has said that the Government's aim is to have transparency and openness and we welcome those aspirations. Indeed, we welcome them so much that we intend to do our best to ensure that they are cemented into the final version of the Bill. It is right that there should be an annual report and that, as detailed in subsection (3), a copy should be laid before Parliament and arrangements made for it to be published. Amendment No. 2 asks only why, having had the report produced, laid before Parliament and then published, the Government should not also be under an obligation to arrange a debate. It seems sensible for the House to make time for a debate once a year on
the work of the OFT, particularly in its early life, and I hope that the Government will readily accede to that.
I return now in slightly more detail to amendments Nos. 3 and 4. It is important for there to be an annual survey of the decisions and investigations of the OFT, first of all by way of precedent. As it goes along, the OFT will be setting precedents and we all know that in the field in which it will be engaged precedents can be important in saving time and legal costs.