Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL]

Clause 23 gives the council the power to request information from the Office of Fair Trading, a designated regulator, any person who supplies goods or services in the course of business and any description of persons specified by the Secretary of State by order. The council may not request information that it does not require to undertake its functions. These powers are essentially the same as those currently available to Energywatch and Postwatch, and accordingly are necessary for the functioning of the new council. If the council requests information from the OFT, or a designated regulator, which then fails to provide the information requested, the council may require the OFT or the designated regulator to provide a notice setting out the reasons for that failure. The council may publish that notice. This also replicates the current arrangements between Energywatch and Postwatch and respective sectoral regulators. We anticipate that in practice the new council is likely to rely on the quality of existing relationships built up by Energywatch, Postwatch and the existing National Consumer Council with their stakeholders, and on high quality and responsible consumer advocacy to obtain information, rather than have to resort to formal procedures. In many cases, the existence of the powers will be enough to encourage provision of information. However, examples where the new council may need to fall back on these powers might include situations where a supplier appears to be withholding relatively uncontroversial information, or comparative data on services or information to inform research by the new council, even though such information would not generally be publicly disclosed. There are also safeguards to the exercise of this power. The council cannot request information that is unrelated to its functions. Further, the council must consider the impact that the request for information will have on the person to whom the request is made, and be mindful of the desirability of minimising the cost or any other detriment that the request might cause. That partly answers the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox. With regard to the exemptions, the sort of information that may come under the overall umbrella would be issues like national security or commercially sensitive information. Information cannot be required that a person could not be compelled to provide in legal proceedings, such as information subject to legal professional privilege. Clause 28 provides that the protections in Part 9 of the Enterprise Act 2002 on disclosure of information will also apply. Clause 27 provides for the Secretary of State to make regulations specifying exemptions from the requirement to provide information to or by the council in relation to persons to whom the notice may not be given—information which a person may refuse to supply, for example, or circumstances in which a person may refuse to comply with such a notice on the grounds of national security or commercial confidentiality, as I have just mentioned. That balances the power to request information and replicates existing powers in the energy and postal services sectors. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, for giving us the opportunity to discuss this important issue. For the reasons I have given, however, I am not convinced that these amendments represent the best way forward in terms of the new council’s ability to carry out its functions effectively and efficiently to represent the interests of consumers. Clause 23 agreed to. Clause 24 agreed to. Schedule 2 agreed to. Clause 25 [Enforcement by court of section 23 notice]: [Amendments Nos. 92 and 93 not moved.] Clause 25 agreed to. Clause 26 [Provision of information by the Council]: [Amendment No. 94 not moved.] Clause 26 agreed to. Clause 27 [Exemptions from requirements to provide information]: [Amendment No. 95 not moved.] Clause 27 agreed to. Clause 28 [Disclosure of information]: [Amendments Nos. 96 to 99 not moved.] Clause 28 agreed to. Clause 29 [Abolition of ““Energywatch”” and ““Postwatch””]: