Clause 11 - Super-complaints to the OFT
Enterprise Bill
10:15 am
Miss Melanie Johnson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry; Welwyn Hatfield, Labour)
I am grateful for my hon. Friend's encouragement not to go into too much detail, although I understand to some extent why Opposition Members are so concerned about it. However, there will be a public process in which the super complainants will be subject to public scrutiny of how they conduct their role, and guidance will be published about how they will do so. Those bodies will need to have, and to maintain, their credibility by exercising good judgment in how they operate in a public arena. The press and other organisations will have views about these matters and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hemel Hempstead said in respect of the telephone scams, hon. Members, too, might express their views.
We are in a public environment and public debate is at the core of the matter; the OFT will need to publish its views and plans for any action that it proposes to take. We want to ensure that both sides benefit from the demand for high-quality input and responses that are well judged, well reasoned and in line with publicly published guidance.