Consumer Credit Bill

moved Amendment No. 12:"Page 37, line 36, after ““unless”” insert—" ““(a)   the change in circumstances is significant and not in the ordinary course of the business; and (b)””    The noble Lord said: My Lords, as I explained in Committee, this amendment relates to the obligations placed in the Bill on each holder of a consumer credit licence to inform the OFT of any changes in circumstances at all to the information supplied in relation to its application and would limit such obligation to information that is significant and not in the ordinary course of business. In Committee the Minister kindly pointed out that because the amendment we then proposed ended with the word ““or””, it would have widened the scope of the changes that it would be necessary to notify to the OFT. Our intention, as he rightly identified, was to narrow that scope. Accordingly, we have returned with an amendment identical save for the fact that it ends with the word ““and””, which we hope and believe achieves the objective. The Minister also said that,"““we do not want licensees to have to notify the OFT of every comma in the wrong place. That would be absurd and time-consuming for the licensee and a waste of resources for the OFT. So a licensee is not required to notify the OFT of any clerical errors or omissions that do not affect the substance of the document””.—[Official Report, 16/11/05; col. GC 316.]" My concern is of a need constantly to be reporting immaterial changes. Clerical errors and omissions are at the bottom end of the scale and by no means include all immaterial changes. The danger lies in having to report the trivial and unimportant, and that concern was not at all assuaged by the words of the Minister in Committee, so I beg to move.