Clause 19
Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill
9:30 am
Stephen Pound (Ealing North, Labour)
I referred earlier in the week, possibly injudiciously, to being seduced by the hon. Lady’s Front-Bench colleague, but I must say that the hon. Lady makes a similar capture of my emotions on this occasion. She makes a powerful case, but does she not accept that for the council to publish advice or information, it must produce that advice or information anyway? If it produces it, surely it will not decide not to publish it. Is she not talking about dissemination rather than publication? If the NCC calls in a piece of work and produces it, it will not then sit on it. Inevitably, it will publish it.
Will she not also consider that the advantage of “may” is that it provides for all the issues of commercial confidentiality, sub judice and cases that might be continuing? Will she not break the habits of a lifetime and trust the Government and the National Consumer Council on this occasion?