Clause 59 - Financial services ombudsman scheme to apply to consumer credit licensees
Consumer Credit Bill
5:15 pm
Charles Hendry (Shadow Minister, Trade & Industry; Wealden, Conservative)
I am grateful to the Minister for such a detailed exposition of the clause, which is a very important aspect of the Bill. I would be grateful, though, if we could return to the types of business. Mr. Taylor, you were sadly absent from the Room this morning when we had a lively and interesting—I would not go as far as saying ''riveting''—discussion about the types of business, and it just seems unfair that because you were out of the Room you should not be given a chance to be part of it.
Paragraphs (a) to (i) of proposed new section 226A(3) list a range of types of business. The concern that we discussed this morning, on which we did not quite reach a conclusion, is that although that is an exhaustive list of types of business as we currently know them, we cannot be certain that they will still be the types of business that exist 30 years ahead. New types of business may or may not have been started.
The Minister asked me what types of business I had in mind that could be started up in the years to come. If I had that degree of vision and knew what multi-billion pound businesses there would be in 30 years' time that no one had yet thought of, I would not be sitting here in Committee but would be out there starting one, or, at the very least, I would be down at William Hill's putting a few pounds on the 2.40 pm at Lingfield park tomorrow afternoon.
Expecting us to know what types of business will exist is perhaps unreasonable, but it is not unreasonable to say that we cannot all have the foresight to say what new types of business might arise, and that we should perhaps be covered by the ombudsman's services.
I therefore ask the Minister to go away and reconsider the matter. I do not want to be rude by telling him to go away today, but I do ask him to think further about it after this sitting and before Report to ascertain whether it would not be unreasonable to amend the Bill so that the list could be reviewed every five years.
After each five-year period, we will know the types of business that might be emerging and whether they are services that should be considered. My simple concern is that the Bill should give us the scope to protect consumers, which we are all trying to do, against the types of business that are not currently major players but that will come along in years to come offering credit services.
If we tie up the legislation as it stands, we deny ourselves the chance to keep it up to date and to give consumers the length and breadth of protection that we seek to offer them. I simply ask the Minister to say that he will reconsider the possibility of the Secretary of State reviewing the list every five years, and that if new types of business have opened up, the Secretary of State should have the power to include them in the list.