Consumer Credit Bill

My Lords, as the Minister will be aware, we had extensive discussions on this and a number of related points in Grand Committee. Of course, a number of the amendments that we discussed then have been brought back to the House on Report. I will not speak for very long on this item, because I hope that the Minister will be able to give some indication that he has thought about the points that were made in Committee. As he will be aware, the over-arching thrust of the comments that have been made both from the Conservative Benches and from the Liberal Democrat Benches reflects the concern that these issues should not simply be left to the court. To put the matter simply, there are three alternatives: first, that the Government make provision either in the Bill or through regulations, as the noble Baroness proposes, on what is to be regarded as an unfair practice; secondly, that the matter is left to the Office of Fair Trading; or, thirdly, that it is left to the courts. The Government take the view, I think, that the matter should be left to the courts on the basis of guidance from the OFT. However, I think that it would be helpful before we move on to other amendments if the Minister could indicate where the Government, having listened to what we all said in Committee, will come down on whether the matter should be dealt with through legislation—either in the Bill or by regulations—through the OFT or simply through the courts.