Consumer Credit Bill

My Lords, the noble Baroness has raised an issue that is still important. As she acknowledged, we had the opportunity to discuss this in Committee last November, when a similar amendment was tabled. At that stage, I explained to the noble Baroness that the issue was the subject of an ongoing court case, with the Office of Fair Trading due to appeal the High Court’s decision on extra-territorial application of Section 75 to the Court of Appeal. The noble Baroness seemed to agree that it would be inappropriate to act before that appeal had been heard, and withdrew the amendment. That appeal is provisionally scheduled to begin at the end of this month. Unfortunately, we have no indication of how long it might be before a judgment is made. However, it would seem unlikely that the case will be resolved before the Bill receives Royal Assent, which, I hope, is not too far away. In any case, I am sure that noble Lords will agree that it would still be inappropriate to amend Section 75 before the case reaches its conclusion and we have had time to consider its implications. Once the court reaches its conclusion, the Government will consider what action, if any, needs to be taken. With that explanation, I hope that the noble Baroness will withdraw her amendment.