Clause 29 - Issue of standard licences
Consumer Credit Bill
5:00 pm
Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Employment Relations, Competition and Consumers), Department of Trade and Industry; Bradford South, Labour)
I beg to move amendment No. 2, in clause 29, page 21, line 39, leave out 'has applied to' and insert 'would'.
The effect of varying the licence may be to make the licensee's name misleading, as there would be no new application by the licensee to be licensed under a particular name. The amendment resolves that conflict. For example, the name of a business may reflect the fact that its licence covers several subcategories. If the licensee became unfit to operate in one of the subcategories, the Office of Fair Trading should be able to vary the licence. That would prevent the business operating in that subcategory and would protect consumers. However, it may also make the licensee's name misleading. Without the amendment, the OFT could be prevented from taking that step. If it were, it could breach proposed new section 25(1AD). The amendment provides for the OFT to vary the licence.
The OFT retains the power to vary a licensee's name by compulsion if the name would be rendered misleading by the licence variation. I stress that this is a technical amendment to address a potential conflict.
Amendment agreed to.