Clause 104
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Vera Baird (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Redcar, Labour)
The operators of approved schemes have to be companies or partnerships, not individuals. It is likely that the CAB might itself go into such territory. The hon. Gentleman will know about the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, which deals with debt management concerning credit cards and personal loans, and Payplan.
Regulations will control and limit advertising,which might provide further reassurance to the hon. Gentleman, who suggested that people might misrepresent the supervision under which they operate when offering a scheme. For a company to misrepresent itself by saying that it has the authority of a court to offer a scheme when it does not, or by saying that it has powers that it does not have, would certainly be an abuse of the scheme and would likely be a criminal offence, probably under the terms of the theft Acts. I hope that that reassures him on the issue of false advertising. There is scope in the Bill to limit or control advertising.
I hope that I have reassured the hon. Gentleman, albeit not exactly how he envisaged—a depth of worry about the matter is unnecessary. Some schemes will probably be run by wholly virtuous bodies such as the CAB, which do not have powers. The input of the supervisory authority will be necessary before such bodies can have more powers.