Schedule 1
Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill
11:15 am
Ian McCartney (Minister of State (Trade & Investment), Department of Trade and Industry; Makerfield, Labour)
Again, I apologise. That is a very fair point. As I have set out, we are not setting up a cross-subsidy arrangement. Those bodies will be responsible for their own areas, and appropriate consultation will take place on the level of their budgets and the resources that they will have to provide. That is no different from the present situation, which we understand and know, so it will not be a difficulty. The bodies concerned are currently involved in an implementation and integration strategy, and that will continue.
The areas in which the Government have historically been responsible for payment will remain where they are—with the Government. They will be part of the open budgetary process that I described. If the hon. Lady wants an assurance that we will not turn up on the doorstep of the postal industry or another industry in a few months and say, “By the way, the cost of running this service for you is, say, £2 million, but we want £10 million off you,” I assure her that the process does not and cannot work that way. There is statutory provision to prevent that from happening.