Clause 38 - POWER OF OFT TO IMPOSE
Consumer Credit Bill
9:25 am
Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Employment Relations, Competition and Consumers), Department of Trade and Industry; Bradford South, Labour)
I understand the consistency with which the hon. Gentleman approaches the issue relating to the powers of the OFT. Amendment No. 46 would severely limit the effectiveness and flexibility of the OFT's power to impose requirements on licensees. It would reduce the considerable protection that goes to the heart of what we are trying to achieve, as the OFT's ability to improve the conduct of licensed business would be curtailed.
The clause refers to associates and former associates of licensees, as well as to the licensees themselves. This is because sometimes a person who is an associate of an unfit person applies for a licence. The definition of associate may be useful: it is found in section 184 of the 1974 Act and means a person's husband or wife, or his relative or their spouse, or a person in partnership with him, or that person's spouse.