City of Westminster Bill [HL]

My Lords, we recognise that the City of Westminster is a local authority which holds a unique place not only in the life of the capital, but in the life of the nation. The noble Baroness will perhaps agree with that view, given her distinguished service as a former member of the council and, indeed, as lady mayoress. The contributions from other speakers in the debate have also added to our appreciation of the contents of the Bill. The Government aim to continually develop our wider thinking on how best to regulate the areas of street trading and pedlary in Great Britain. I should of course make it clear right from the start that the Government, as per normal, do not take any view on the content of private Bills; they are a matter for Parliament to decide. I will address my remarks to the wider considerations raised by Westminster’s Bill and the extent to which they reflect our thinking about street trading today. I noted in the contributions of both my noble friend Lord Graham and the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, from the Official Opposition’s Front Bench, the question of why local and not national action is taken. The truth is that the scale of the problem that these private Acts attempt to address remains unclear nationally. Under 5 per cent of local authorities have sought to introduce legislation in this area, but the Government have conducted and recently published research into street trading and pedlary in the UK in order better to establish the evidence for whether national action is required. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform will be consulting widely over the summer on the findings of that research and on possible regulatory options—for example, an updating of the Pedlars Act 1871, and the need for a flexible regime of enforcement in respect of the current regime under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. In that context, I should like first to make reference to the research project begun on the Government’s behalf by Durham University last June and concluded last November. That project gathered the views of hundreds of stakeholders from local authority, police, town centre management and pedlary backgrounds, all with views to offer on the current legislative position. More information on the project’s outcomes is available in the consumers’ area of BERR’s website, and copies of the research are available in the Library. Further contact with individuals and organisations with a contribution to make to that dialogue is vital, and I shall say more about how we will take this forward shortly. As I indicated a moment ago, where Westminster leads, other authorities follow, hence the 1999 Act; that is certainly the case where street-trading legislation is concerned. The 1999 Act was to some extent the template followed by a number of local authorities seeking to augment their powers via private Bills on street trading in recent years. Reference has been made to Bournemouth, but Canterbury, Leeds, Manchester City, Nottingham and Reading are awaiting their day in court, as one might say, before the Committee in the other place. Differing views about these Bills were aired during the debates in the other place about nine months ago. I commend the Hansard record of 12 June to those noble Lords interested in learning more about the objections to and support for what might be called the bigger picture. We have heard that this Bill has attracted petitions against it from interested parties. A group representing pedlar interests has commented on the perpetuation of the restriction on certified pedlars’ activities. We heard also that concerns have been expressed by the National Market Traders Federation about adjustments to the licensing and appeals processes, as well as by Associated Newspapers Ltd, commenting on new powers in respect of the location of news vendors. In furtherance of the objectives, noble Lords may also be interested to know that officials from BERR will be involving those authorities who have proposed new legislation, some six or seven of them, in further discussions about their Bills later this month, and of course Westminster will have a seat at the table. That ongoing dialogue will continue into the summer as future changes which may affect street trading and pedlary legislation are consulted upon nationally in the light of the aforementioned research. I should emphasise to the House that effective consultation is particularly important to pedlars, as our research reveals that they are apprehensive about their relationship with some local authorities. They may lack a dedicated organisation to make their case, but none the less they have made their voices heard clearly—as they should be—through BERR’s research, and will be able to do so in the forthcoming consultation dialogue. It is against this background of possible longer term change to national legislation that the City of Westminster has proposed a Bill to address the particular problems it is experiencing now. Some of these problems may remind other authorities of their situation, so the points I make may have a wider audience than just those in the Chamber today. I also imagine close attention may be paid to developments concerning this Bill and the others currently in the other place via the parliamentary website. As I have said, the Government do not have a view on the Bill. However, we are aware of the issues it raises. Perhaps I should say—in a sense, this is the dog that does not bark—that there are protections in existing legislation that go towards meeting the problems that crop up in the Bill and elsewhere. Therefore, in order to respond, particularly to the points raised by the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, who generously offered me the opportunity to write to him in detail, I will take up that invitation so that I do not detain the House too long. That concludes my response, except to say that I note there are other technical points concerning the Bill that officials in departments other than BERR have raised. Those points, and others, may receive consideration in the Select Committee. I thank the noble Baroness again for her introduction of the Bill. She made it possible for me to present to the House a brief overview of the wider points involved in any consideration of street trading legislation and the Government’s immediate plans in respect of street trading activity. I suspect that many local authorities, pedlars and others who have an interest in this policy area will follow developments with interest. I confirm that I will write to the Minister in BERR responsible for this matter and his opposite numbers in other departments to draw their attention to the Hansard record of this debate, which will be helpful to them.