Clause 15 - Review of Adjudicator and guidance from Secretary of State

Part of Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:30 pm on 13 December 2012.

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Photo of Jo Swinson Jo Swinson The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills 3:30, 13 December 2012

I am very sad to hear that the hon. Member for Edinburgh South suggest deep-fried mushrooms, unwittingly confirming some of the worst stereotypes of Scottish food, which I wholeheartedly refute. I am sure he said it only in jest.

My hon. Friend the Member for St Ives wanted further clarification on the drafting of proposed new section 4A(1) and (2). He pointed out that subsection (2)  gives the adjudicator wide powers in terms of the information that they could consider from a wide range of sources, which would include trade associations. The difference is that that would be when they are carrying out an investigation and the trigger point is whether to carry out an investigation.

This section gives a power if there is a real concern that the resources of the adjudicator are being clogged up by irrelevant or unnecessary information. As a public authority, the adjudicator would have a duty to respond to that in a reasonable manner. If they ended up in that situation, the Secretary of State, following a full review and consultation that went along with that review, could then make a recommendation. There would then need to be parliamentary approval for that, and that would mean that investigations could be triggered only by the different types of information outlined in proposed new section 4A(1). However, once an investigation has been triggered, any information would be able to be considered as part of the investigation.