Clause 20
Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill
10:00 am
Mark Prisk (Shadow Minister (Small Businesses and Enterprise), Trade & Industry; Hertford and Stortford, Conservative)
The clause provides for a duty to enter into co-operative arrangements on the part of the council. Subsection (1) says:
“It is the duty of the Council and each designated body to enter into cooperation arrangements under this section.”
A designated body is defined in various ways, including, under subsection (2)(d),
“a person designated by the Secretary of State by order for the purposes of this section.”
Amendment No. 18, which is a probing amendment, is intended to help us understand more clearly the scope of the measure and the Government’s intentions in that area. I hope that the Minister will be able to clarify exactly how the Government intend to appoint such persons, so we can understand that the process will be above board. I hope that he will give us some assurances on that.
Amendment No. 19, which is another probing amendment, relates to subsection (4). It seeks a little bit more clarity about how the Government intend to approach the publication of their memorandum setting out what they have done. At the moment, the subsection says that that should be done as soon as is practicable, but we seek to amend it to include a timetable of six months, not because six months is necessarily an instant panacea or a perfect period of time, but to be clear as to whether the Government think that it is adequate, or too long or short a time, and what they expect will be appropriate. On that basis, I move the amendment and look forward to the Minister’s reply.