Clause 48 - Conditions relating to customer interests
Communications Bill
12:15 pm
Mr John Greenway (Ryedale, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 77, in
clause 48, page 48, line 47, at end insert 'but only when the value of the dispute does not exceed £5,000'.
Clauses 48 to 51 place Ofcom under a duty to ensure that the communications industry has in place effective and accessible machinery for the protection of domestic and small business customers, including procedures for dealing with complaints and disputes. It is clear from the Bill that the procedures should be simple, transparent, effective and free of charge. Complaints are to be dealt with under a code of practice, and disputes covered by the public communications providers establishing machinery approved by Ofcom.
I remind the Committee that Oftel recently adopted a voluntary ombudsman scheme. The notes on clauses—after my earlier comment about a plate of spaghetti, I should say that I find them helpful on this part of the Bill—suggest that the scheme is likely to be submitted to Ofcom for approval. Will there be a seamless transition between the Oftel scheme and the one that Ofcom is likely to approve?
One aspect of the Bill is at variance with the existing scheme. Amendment No. 77 is designed to address whether some limit on monetary value should apply to any dispute mechanism. It would place a reasonable limit on the value of the type of customer dispute that can be dealt with by the procedures in the clause. We understand that the ombudsman scheme agreed with consumers and the industry has a £5,000 limit. It would make sense to add such a provision to the Bill to ensure that the scheme does not discriminate against firms of moderate size that have lower revenues.