An advocacy organisation is best judged by its effectiveness, by the decisions that it makes at the outset, when it receives a complaint, as to the appropriate place where that complaint should be taken, and who has the responsibility to take it to that point and ensure that the complaint is dealt with in a relevant way.

That is why I think that the Amendment is not particularly helpful for consumers in general and vulnerable consumers in particular. That is because there will be occasions when the complaint is not best dealt with by the NCC, but by someone else, because it is their responsibility. What the Clause seeks to do is to ensure that, whatever access the consumer makes, at that access point someone takes responsibility to assist them and not simply say: “Not ours, Guv’. Go somewhere else. Look up Yellow Pages, but it’s not us. Go to the CAB, but it’s not us.” I do not think thatthat approach is reasonable or right. Therefore it is important that the new council must consider complaints from vulnerable consumers and assess whether those complaints should be investigated by the council or should be referred to another party better placed to resolve the issue.

In the end, what is the bottom line here? When a complaint is made, the bottom line is to ensure that it is accessed at the right point to be resolved, and hopefully resolved to the benefit of the consumer. For example, a breach of a license condition would be better dealt with by the appropriate regulator, not by the NCC, as set out in clauses 14 or 15. Those clauses allow the new council to refer matters to Ofgem or Postcomm, ifit considers that the regulators should use their enforcement powers to remedy the problem.