I apologise for my premature rising, Mr. Weir.

The hon. Lady’s Amendment has stimulated me to delve deep within the entrails of proposed newsection 23A(1) of the Estate Agents Act 1979, particularly the use of the word “complaints.” When my right hon. Friend the Minister responds, will he comment on third-party complaints? I raise thatpoint because, like many Members, I am constantly approached by aggrieved constituents complaining about the proliferation of sale boards. In many cases, there is a veritable forest of them.

I have discovered that, in a number of cases, estate agents place boards on properties in which they currently have no interest but may at some stage. Inmy Constituency, on the corner of Ruislip road and Rectory Park avenue, there is an absolute forest of boards, providing a windbreak if anyone happens to be playing football behind it. If one wishes to complain, there is no obvious direct first or second-party complainant, because the boards are on the corner of the road, so we come to a stage at which there must be a third-party complainant.

My public-spirited constituent, Tessa West, has drawn to my attention a problem in Queen’s walk in  Ealing, where an estate agent has placed a board outside a property on the assumption that they may have an interest in disposing of that property at some point in the future. Like all people of good will, I look to my right hon. Friend the Minister to resolve such problems in the style for which he is so well known.

I should like to discover whether there is some way in which we can consider third-party complaints, particularly in respect of sale boards. I have pursued such a case through the small claims court, and I was told that the damage done to a property by the affixation of a sale board was so minimal that there could be no claim in law. The estate agent was then required to take down the board within 21 days, which gave them 21 days of free advertising.

In such a massive industry—agency charges in England and Wales are about £3 billion a year—there is inevitably great pressure on estate agents to get their name into the public domain. I am concerned that in some cases, keen and hungry estate agents, who are not necessarily unscrupulous, use the entirely legitimate sale board in an illegitimate way.

When my right hon. Friend sums up, will he offer some comfort to the many people, such as my constituent, Tessa West, and, I am sure, many hon. and right hon. Members, who suffer in that way and do not see an obvious remedy? Local government planning law does not apply, because a board is a temporary structure. There appears to be some size regulation in the industry, so it is not as though estate agents produce massive billboards, which could be a hazard under highway legislation. Such use of sale boards is certainly a nuisance, however; it is sharp practice and something that we could address, even though in the grand scheme of things, it may seem small potatoes.