Clause 71 - Short title, commencement and extent
Consumer Credit Bill
5:45 pm
Charles Hendry (Shadow Minister, Trade & Industry; Wealden, Conservative)
It would not be appropriate for us to reach the end of the Bill without having a further point of clarification from the Minister, to which he will probably say, ''I hear where you're coming from'', and then explain why he did not really understand where I was coming from at all. There are a couple of points here, which I hope that he can clarify.
Subsection (2) says that different provisions can be introduced at different times, which is welcome, but can the Minister tell us what consultations he will now have with the industry to ensure that he fully understands which measures require a longer period before implementation? As he will appreciate, significant software changes will be required before the Bill can be enacted. It was some six years before all aspects of the last Act came into force. Clearly, we would not expect this to take six years, but there is a strong case for showing flexibility about different provisions coming into force at different times. I hope that the Minister will be prepared to have constructive discussions with the industry to ensure that that can be done properly.
Can the Minister also say a little about the Northern Irish aspects of the Bill? Normally, this would have been a devolved matter for the Assembly, but because it is suspended, that is not possible. What will happen when, we hope, the Northern Ireland Assembly is reformed? Will it pass its own legislation in this area, and will it pass its own amendments? How would that take place? We hope that the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly is only temporary. I can see that a furious amount of scribbling is going on, and I am going on so that the Minister can obtain more guidance before he has to respond. Can he tell us what will happen when the Assembly is brought back into being, and how can Northern Ireland adapt the Bill to the needs of the Province?