Oral Answers to Questions — Trade and Industry – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 1 November 1989.
Mr Nicholas Baker
, North Dorset
12:00,
1 November 1989
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will seek to regulate the conduct of loss adjusters.
John Redwood
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Trade and Industry)
It is the responsibility of the professional associations of which they are members to maintain the professional standards of loss adjusters.
Mr Nicholas Baker
, North Dorset
Is my hon. Friend aware that loss adjusters acting for insurance companies frequently browbeat and bully innocent claimants? Will my hon. Friend remind insurers that their duty is to recompense people who have suffered losses that are covered by insurance policies? Does my hon. Friend agree that practices of the kind that I have outlined should be drawn to the attention of the Director General of Fair Trading?
John Redwood
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Trade and Industry)
I am disturbed to hear my hon. Friend's accusations. If he has a particular case in mind he should refer it to the professional body concerned because such bodies have disciplinary powers over their members. If my hon. Friend thinks that the abuses are widespread, he should talk or write to the Director General of Fair Trading because he has powers to negotiate a code of conduct with the professions if he thinks that that is necessary.
John Reid
, Motherwell North
Many Opposition Members would like to be associated with the genuine compliments paid to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry by his Conservative colleagues because we have found out that such compliments are the political equivalent of the last meal of a condemned man. The Secretary of State is not only unique, he is quite brilliant. I would have said "unassailable" but I think that unsaleable——
Mr Bernard Weatherill
, Croydon North East
Order. I gave the hon. Gentleman a chance to ask a question about loss adjusters.
John Reid
, Motherwell North
Is the Minister aware that if a loss adjuster visited the Clydesdale tube works in Scotland he would find that less damage had been caused over the past five years by accidental death, burglary and fire than by the absolute refusal by British Steel to invest in that tube works? Will the Minister encourage British Steel to put in some investment?
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