Clause 13
Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill
6:15 pm
Ian McCartney (Minister of State (Trade & Investment), Department of Trade and Industry; Makerfield, Labour)
My hon. Friend is absolutely right and makes an excellent point. As I said at the outset, the whole purpose is to change the culture of the organisations that provide the goods and services. That is a preventive strategy. The more preventive our strategy is, the less need there is for resources for intervention.
Intervention is a sign of failure. It is important that the providers—in this instance energy suppliers—have an effective process for engaging with their vulnerable consumers. If a consumer, vulnerable or otherwise, gets into difficulties with the payment for their supply, a decision-making process in the organisation’s ethos should help to prevent disconnection. The skills, knowledge and experience are needed within the organisation to act and advocate on behalf of the consumer on that basis. Only when that fails should the NCC be brought into play. It should not be the first and only port of call. After a year of the system operating in that way, we would end up with far more disconnections. The hon. Lady’s intentions are good, but the reality is that the amendment would act against vulnerable consumers, rather than for them.