Consumer Credit Bill

: The amendment suggests that the unfair relationships provisions are in some way dependent on the OFT’s guidance for their meaning and effect, but that is not the case. The OFT’s guidance is simply guidance, and it is guidance as to the circumstances in which the OFT will take action under its powers in Part 8 of the Enterprise Act 2002 against creditors who enter into unfair relationships. The Enterprise Act provides that the OFT may take action for a breach of specific statutory requirements, which will include the unfair relationships provisions, when there is harm to the collective interests of consumers in the United Kingdom. The OFT’s guidance will not seek to interpret or define an unfair relationship, although it could refer to conduct that it considers may give rise to, or contribute to, unfair relationships giving rise to the exercise of its Part 8 powers, either by reference to other OFT guidance or to court decisions. The test operates independently of the guidance. As I have said, the courts are not bound by the OFT’s guidance and they do not have to have regard to it. Obviously, if the guidance is relevant—and we could expect that it often would be—the court may have regard to it. So the application of the new test by the courts is not something that needs the OFT’s guidance or that should be linked to it in this way. I ask the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.