Charles Hendry (Shadow Minister, Trade & Industry; Wealden, Conservative)

I beg to move amendment No. 7, in clause 4, page 3, line 13, leave out ‘an agreement includes’.

David Taylor (North West Leicestershire, Labour)

With this it will be convenient to discuss amendment No. 8, in clause 4, page 3, line 13, after ‘declaration’, insert ‘has been’.

Charles Hendry (Shadow Minister, Trade & Industry; Wealden, Conservative)

We have tabled the amendments to deal with procedural issues relating to declarations in respect of business lending. Definition is one of the big issues. Some borrowing can clearly be seen as personal, such as borrowing for expensive jewellery, and some is clearly business, such as borrowing for a new printing press, but some could be either. The Minister mentioned a helicopter. That helicopter could be for personal, or business use.

Under the clause, the credit agreement provided to businesses will be exempt from regulation unless it is for a value of less than £25,000. Again, we welcome that measure because it allows businesses the flexibility that they need to pursue their interests, to invest, to develop and to respond to natural peaks and troughs associated with trading.

New Section 16B(2), which will be inserted by clause 4, will provide that a credit or hire agreement will be presumed to be wholly or predominantly for business purposes where it includes a declaration by the debtor or hirer to that effect. New section 16B(3) provides for circumstances in which the presumption would not apply. We support the creation of such a presumption of exemption, but for the exemption to be effective, the provision requires the declaration to be made in the agreement. That is unnecessary and over-bureaucratic because, again, lenders will need to maintain a separate suite of agreements containing the specified declaration. That produces the same unnecessary burdens on lenders as referred to in relation to clause 3.

Amendments Nos. 7 and 8 are essentially similar to amendments Nos. 1 and 2 and may therefore produce a similar response from the Minister. They seek to reduce the red tape and costs on business by allowing the declaration to be made in a separate accompanying document. That provides greater flexibility and scope for quicker decisions, which must surely be our objective. Again, such a measure would have no detrimental impact on consumers. The mandatory requirement that the clause sets out to achieve remains in place.

Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs), Department of Trade and Industry; Bradford South, Labour)

I understand why the hon. Gentleman has tabled the amendment, given that it is consequential on the previous amendments, but it will come as no surprise to him that I am going to give the same response that I gave earlier. We feel that we have achieved the right balance. I will honour my undertaking to consider the matter, but clearly the same argument applies. On the proviso that we will consider the matter in the context that I mentioned, I hope that he will withdraw his amendment.

Charles Hendry (Shadow Minister, Trade & Industry; Wealden, Conservative)

I am grateful to the Minister for agreeing to consider the matter further and I look forward to dealing with it on Report. Hopefully, he will come forward with some additional thoughts then. With that assurance, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.