Clause 5
Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill
4:00 pm
Mark Prisk (Shadow Minister (Small Businesses and Enterprise), Trade & Industry; Hertford and Stortford, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 1, in clause 5, page 3, line 36, leave out ‘before each financial year publish’ and insert ‘publish triennially’.
Good afternoon, Mr. Weir. I am delighted that we are moving on to clause 5. I presume that I should deal with amendment No. 1 on its own and that we will then consider other matters thereafter.
The purpose of the amendment is simple but important; namely, to remove the phrase
“before each financial year publish”
and insert “publish triennially”—I said that word carefully. “Triennially” involved a challenge, and we made sure that we spelled it correctly. Otherwise, three documents might have been published each year. However, I am reliably told by my “Oxford English Dictionary” that our wording is correct.
The purpose of the amendment is simple. The forward work programme should provide a strategic framework within which the new National Consumer Council will operate, so it is logical to suggest that it be published every three years rather than every year. The forward work programme, as its very name suggests, should deal with a period or more than a year. Indeed, the council will separately publish an annual report, so there will be an annual process of reporting on what has been achieved.
This is a probing amendment whose purpose isto establish the reasoning behind an annual work programme. There are examples of organisations and functions that operate on the basis of a three-year programme. A good number of police authorities have a three-year forward work programme, which seemsto work perfectly well. Similarly, local planning authorities have local development schemes that cover a three-year period.
The period can be adjusted, of course. It can be altered, it is not set in stone or completely immutable. The purpose is to provide the organisation with a perspective beyond the 12-month cycle. I suspect that with triennial publication of the forward work programme, the council would be able better to plan and use its resources. That is one reason why wewould like to explore with the Minister whether the Government have considered that approach. It would sit well with the other publications, documents and reporting that the Government anticipate. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s remarks.