Compensation Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for explaining what is behind the amendment. I will focus my remarks on the two points that the noble Lord is most interested in. I was heartened by his comments about free services. One issue that we have to grapple with in the ministerial group is to make sure that people get information about the free services available to them and to make sure that is promoted and advertised as much as possible. As I recall, an issue was raised in the correspondence between the Financial Services Authority and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt; forgive me if I have that wrong. The issue is whether by advertising their services, sometimes claims management companies raise the fact that there is an issue that people can make a claim against. The letter muses on whether that in itself is an interesting service. I agree with the noble Lord that the critical issue is that individuals need to know the options available to them and can make their choices accordingly. It may be that they wish to pay for what they consider to be a superior or better service. As the noble Lord indicated, there is not much evidence at this stage to suggest that that is what they are getting; they are getting a service, but they might have got just as good a service for free. I also agree on alternative dispute resolution; I am responsible for that in the Department for Constitutional Affairs. A lot of work is going into trying to offer opportunities for individuals who have some form of dispute not to end up in the court system, where it would be better for all concerned and often a much easier and happier way to find solutions to resolve it outside the court. We are doing work all over the country to develop different initiatives to achieve that where we possibly can. There is a lot of agreement between us on that, and we need to look more carefully at that. On the small claims limit, I met with the Association of British Insurers the other day, and I note that it said, exactly as did the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, that there is concern. We have begun to talk to a range of organisations, including consumer organisations, about that, and we will be formally consulting. I am waiting for my noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor and I to have the opportunity to discuss precisely when would be the right moment to have that consultation, because, as the noble Lord said, there are a lot of views and a lot of voices on this from people who are interested in what we may do. They are not unanimous, of course, and we need to take different views into account. As soon as I have an answer to the specific question about when we might do that, I will notify the noble Lord and the Committee. On the amendment, we want to include housing disrepair claims within the scope of regulation, as we have indicated, but including them by reference to Clause 11 may not be enough to ensure that we capture all the claims that we want. We are looking to consult with the Local Government Association, the British Property Association and the Association of Residential Managing Agents to ensure that we get a definition that captures such claims as we want to. I hope that on that basis, the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.