Orders of the Day — Enterprise Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 4:51 pm on 10 April 2002.

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Photo of Patricia Hewitt Patricia Hewitt Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry 4:51, 10 April 2002

I welcome the hon. Gentleman's support for the extension of stop now orders and he is right to draw attention to the vital role of trading standards officers. There is some variation in the quality and resourcing of trading standards officers around the country. That is why the Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, my hon. Friend Miss Johnson, the Minister responsible for consumer protection, is using funding from the modernisation fund, and working with the OFT and trading standards officers, to ensure that they are properly resourced and able to implement their extremely important responsibilities towards consumers.

The National Consumer Council—to which reference has been made—has said in relation to the stop now orders and more general matters:

"These measures will complete the crackdown on anti-competitive practices that for too long have damaged the interests of consumers."

The Bill also includes measures to enable the OFT to give formal approval to voluntary industry codes of practice—provided that these are effective in protecting consumer interests and meet core criteria—and to promote the benefits of those codes to consumers and business. In that way, we will help consumers to identify reputable traders and benefit businesses by increasing consumer confidence in their products and services.

I should now like to turn to the measures on insolvency and the insolvency reform proposals within the Bill. Failure, as well as success, is an integral part of an enterprise economy. But the fear and consequences of failure should not be so disproportionate that they act as a disincentive to entrepreneurs. We need to encourage honest risk-takers, while dealing with the minority of bankrupts who are thoroughly dishonest.