Schedule 1
Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill
11:00 am
Ian McCartney (Minister of State (Trade & Investment), Department of Trade and Industry; Makerfield, Labour)
There has to be some flexibility.I am doing this without a brief: I am giving thehon. Gentleman my opinion. That is why the Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Canning Town, is here. An organisation that is independent is best able to represent the interests of consumers. We will give it that independence. It will be for the new NCC to determine, after consultation on its work programme, the best way to do that and how effective consumer voices should be in the regions. Again, this is work in progress. I repeat the commitment I gave at the outset: as the process of implementation goes on apace, I will keep the Opposition Front-Bench teams aware of what we are doing.