Clause 11 - Super-complaints to the OFT
Enterprise Bill
9:30 am
Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, Conservative)
Clause 11 is crucial, as it deals with super complaints. The amendments have slightly different functions: one would reduce the period for responding to a complaint from 90 days to 60 days; the other would remove subsection (4), which allows the Secretary of State to substitute any period for the period set out in the Bill.
We discussed the need to ensure that super complaints, stop now orders and Office of Fair Trading investigations do not impose unnecessary burdens and costs on business, even if they are unobjectionable or a good thing. During our lively debate, it was clear that a deep, philosophical difference split the Committee, and the Liberal Democrat party, down the middle. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael) did not attend that sitting, so it would be fascinating to know whether he can break the tie among his colleagues, who seem to have different views. Naturally, it is a pleasure to have him with us.
Those with old and new Labour tendencies are happy to heap ever more burdens on business—probably because they believe that business deserves it—and have no concern for the results. The first instinct of others—the official Opposition—is to check whether the cost-benefit ratio is out of kilter, resulting in the burdens on business being excessive. I leave aside another great theme that runs through this Bill and much of the Government's legislation; the law of unintended consequences.
In a sense, that is rendered irrelevant by yesterday's events. As Mr. Digby Jones of the CBI said in response to the Budget:
''there will be deep dismay at the net increase of some £2.5 billion in the cost of doing business in Britain''.
All our deliberations on the so-called Enterprise Bill must be seen against that background.
The Bill rightly sets out a period within which a
response to a super complaint must be received. The OFT must indicate what, if any, action it intends to take in response to that complaint. We deal with all these issues on the hopeful assumption that the resources, including staff, will be available to ensure that the OFT can deal with them. I suspect that there will be a rush of super complaints from the designated bodies. I will discuss who may be a designated body in a moment. The consumer organisations, the most likely candidates, are keen, to put it mildly, on the new provision. The OFT will therefore suddenly find its in-tray filling up. Let us hope that it is in a position to respond rapidly to the complaints.
Having said that, we believe that once things have settled down, the OFT should be able to respond more quickly. If a case is serious enough to form the basis of a super complaint, it must mean one or both of two things: first, it is serious matter affecting many consumers up and down the land, and secondly, because it will have taken a while to come to the attention of trading standards officers, Members of Parliament, consumers associations or whomsoever, the problem will have been in train for some time and will need addressing.
We have plumped for a period of 60 days, so that the response is fairly rapid. It does not have to be the final word on the matter, but it should be possible within that period for the OFT to take at least a prima facie view—I assume that is what is envisaged—on whether the matter should be pursued. The complainant organisation and the consumers that it represents can then be assured that the issue will be taken further.
We agree with having a limit on the period of response for another reason. Companies should not have to contend with a sword of Damocles hanging over them; an open-ended risk of being in jeopardy of investigation. Companies should be told quickly either that the matter will or will not be pursued, and 60 days is not an unreasonable period. I look forward to hearing the Under-Secretary's response. If she were to argue for an even shorter period, we might be prepared to accept it.
Amendment No. 25 deals with the Secretary of State's powers to change this period. Clause 11(4) refers to
''substituting any period for the period for the time being specified''—
90 days—but should mean substituting only a shorter period. The clause does not say that. Despite the scramble to table amendments on other subjects as a result of the Government's own actions, we should have tabled an amendment to that effect.
I hope to receive the Under-Secretary's assurance that the Government envisage reducing the period only when the OFT has bedded down with its new functions, the staff is in place and everything is running efficiently. It would be disappointing to consumer bodies—particularly the designated ones—as well as to us, if the OFT used the excuse of pressure of work or inadequate resources to extend the period. By definition, if dealing with super complaints is to
have the dramatic effect that the Government promise, the process must surely move swiftly. The OFT may have the best intentions in the world, but we should be cautious about this provision.