Clause 1 - The Office of Fair Trading
Enterprise Bill
11:30 am
Miss Melanie Johnson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry; Welwyn Hatfield, Labour)
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for making that point. The board's independence is very important so that the OFT can regulate its own procedures—quorum, voting, committees and so on—and have flexible arrangements enabling it to take quick decisions when necessary. It is important, too, that there is no question of political interference. I am grateful for the remarks made by the hon. Member for Twickenham about the standing of the OFT and the fact that there is no question of it being interfered with. As the hon. Gentleman said, it is an honest system that has been sparingly used. None the less, there are risks in having a political dimension.
Taking the step of distancing politicians from the decisions that need to be made about competition on competition grounds is important; we would lose a lot were we to argue our way out of it. I appreciate that there is a desire in the House, and the Committee, to maintain accountability, which is why I stressed that the measures that deliver enhance accountability over the existing arrangements. I hope that what I have said will reassure my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Derbyshire (Mr. Barnes) about the avenues of access, many of which will remain. There will be discussions with the Department on such issues and greater scope for parliamentary engagement. As in the past, there will be the usual scope for Members of Parliament to contact the Office of Fair Trading to raise issues and take matters forward on behalf of their constituents.
On the body corporate and the statutory board, it is a matter of terminology; there will be a board and it will be a legal entity. The OFT and the board are one and the same entity, so the reference to a board is unnecessary in the Bill.
I welcome the focus of the hon. Member for Eastbourne on important issues such as effectiveness, the burdens on business and the resources available. I look forward to further opportunities to debate those matters in the Bill.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 1 ordered to stand part of the Bill.