Consumer Rights Bill

I am going to elaborate on that when I discuss digital measures. The hon. Gentleman is quite righ...

I am interested and encouraged to hear that proposal, because I dealt with a constituency case in...

Trading standards at a local level are extremely important. It is not a statutory obligation, and...

I am chair of the all-party parliamentary group on consumer affairs and trading standards. In my ...

I know very well my hon. Friend’s interest in this area and the work that he has done on it. He h...

I thank the Secretary of State for his generosity in giving way, particularly as I unfortunately ...

Some of us find this a passionately interesting subject. The enthusiasm shows, I know. There is t...

I am extremely interested in what the Secretary of State has been saying, which is important for ...

There have already been discussions with the Northern Ireland authorities, and we plan to introdu...

I was so fascinated by what the Secretary of State would be saying today that when I realised tha...

The hon. Gentleman is correct that an undertaking was made, which I understand is in process. Dif...

The Secretary of State has set out a lot of rights for consumers. What has been the impact of the...

Many of these issues are dealt with through small claims courts. I recognise that there is often ...

How will the Bill address the issue of companies going into liquidation and what happens to their...

Those issues are covered by insolvency legislation, which we hope to review later in this Parliam...

I thank the Secretary of State for singling out the furniture industry, which has a number of pro...

The proposals are designed to address exactly that kind of problem, because they would enable the...

Will the Bill be in any way retrospective? For example, will it bring relief to a customer who ha...

The right hon. Gentleman asks a tricky and quite specific legal question, and I do not want to gu...

I appreciate the Secretary of State’s generosity in giving way to me a second time. I want to tou...

As the hon. Gentleman says, I have discussed that with him before. Indeed, there was a discussion...

I want to raise a further question that is not addressed by the Bill as currently drafted, and su...

The hon. Gentleman is right that the safety aspects are dealt with separately. I was under the im...

With regard to the time it can take for products purchased from manufacturers based overseas to b...

As I tried to explain when describing the reforms relating to deficient goods, repairs must be do...

I am grateful for what the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is doing in relation to...

I cannot give any figures, but we are starting from virtually zero, so there will almost certainl...

I share the Secretary of State’s passion for this subject, and I challenge the idea of my hon. Fr...

This is a Bill on consumer rights, and many consumers would, for example, like the opportunity to...

I hope that the hon. Gentleman is on the Public Bill Committee, because I would enjoy many such c...

My hon. Friend has already proved herself to be a superb champion of consumer rights since enteri...

I want to come on to precisely my hon. Friend’s question about trading standards, and about how t...

Does the hon. Lady agree that companies selling products often overlook the rights of consumers o...

The hon. Gentleman makes some strong points about exactly the kind of contracts that consumers ge...

I hate to interrupt the hon. Lady in full powerful flow, but I want to ask her whether there is a...

I can safely say that I will please the hon. Gentleman by talking about the cost of living crisis...

Will the hon. Lady give way again?

I think it will help the hon. Gentleman if I go on to explain my case, but I will give way to him...

Does the hon. Lady agree that it is at least something that the coalition has brought the Bill fo...

The hon. Gentleman is again being a little uncharitable. I pointed out that consumer rights legis...

Often, the poorest families shop away from the main street. Something that has long concerned me ...

My hon. Friend is spot on and shows why the Bill falls short. That issue in the furniture industr...

Order. We require only one speaker at a time, so I would be grateful if the hon. Member for Suffo...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I would be delighted to take an intervention from the hon. Lady ...

The hon. Lady raises an important point. There are scam versions of Driver and Vehicle Licensing ...

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, and if the Bill met the test of providing the best consum...

Does the hon. Lady agree that Members should encourage their constituents simply to use the Gover...

The hon. Gentleman’s question reveals one challenge that we face. I would love to sit at a comput...

I am listening to the hon. Lady with interest, and one cannot help but agree with her on a large ...

We can have that argument in Committee, but being clear about pricing is not about any one of the...

Again, I cannot disagree with the hon. Lady, and that is indeed what the Bill is intended to do. ...

I am disappointed that the hon. Gentleman does not believe that we can clarify what should be inc...

My hon. Friend is making some excellent points, especially about the secondary ticketing market. ...

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend. She has been a tireless campaigner on this issue and seen at fir...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

I am conscious of time and I would like to make a little progress, but I will let the hon. Lady i...

It slightly confuses the matter if the hon. Lady tries to bring secondary ticketing within the sc...

I think the hon. Lady does not quite recognise that a contract involves both a vendor and a purch...

rose—

I will give way to the Secretary of State who I am sure is a passionate rugby fan.

Not least because the hon. Lady is looking after my constituency for me. Let me reassure her that...

I think the fact that the Secretary of State is considering the ticket touts rather than the rugb...

It is kind of the hon. Lady to give way, and laudable that she should try to cover every single p...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for illustrating so vividly why the Government believe there must alwa...

On the contrary, the issue has been resolved and a mobile phone signal has been restored to my co...

The Minister raises an interesting question about why, if the Bill will simply consolidate powers...

There is a secondary problem with mobile phones because as well as when a mast breaks down, there...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his contribution, and I will come on to whether the voice of the c...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I am conscious of time and want to press on.

Order. I heard the hon. Lady say that she wanted to press on. May I point out to her that she has...

I promise you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that I, too, want to conclude my remarks.

The Bill doe...

Order. When I say that the hon. Lady needs to conclude her speech, I do not mean that she should ...

It is a request that to which I willingly oblige.

Suffice to say, the Opposition look forwa...

Unlike the hon. Member for Barrow and Furness (John Woodcock), I believe this is an important sub...

Explain!

Perhaps the hon. Lady could explain that to the hon. Gentleman. I pay tribute to her commitment t...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I will not take interventions because of the instruction from Madam Deputy Speaker to keep moving...

Order. I was addressing my remarks only to the hon. Lady at the Dispatch Box speaking on behalf o...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for that very helpful clarification. If I can finish my point, I...

The hon. Gentleman mentions the modernisation of consumer rights. Does he agree that it is time t...

The hon. Lady makes an interesting point, some of which is dealt with in the Bill. It will be int...

My hon. Friend is making a powerful point. On education, many students are not aware of how littl...

My hon. Friend, as ever, makes an extremely interesting and shrewd observation. The truth at the ...

My hon. Friend talks about empowering health consumers to gain greater transparency. Does he welc...

Yes, I do. My hon. Friend makes an excellent point and I think this is a subject that we will deb...

Will my hon. Friend join me in welcoming the many examples in the west midlands of reshoring, inc...

My hon. Friend makes another excellent point. In fact, no industry is more symptomatic of the pos...

The hon. Gentleman is making a good point about supply chains, but does he not agree that those w...

The hon. Gentleman pre-empts precisely the point I was about to make about balance in supply chai...

On supply chains and consumer rights, my hon. Friend might be aware that the all-party group on B...

My hon. Friend makes another excellent point. If we are to seize the benefits of globalisation an...

As Chair of the Select Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills, which spent four sessions ex...

I support the Bill because the principles that guided it are exactly what the country needs in or...

I am utterly astounded that the hon. Gentleman should believe that this is the legislation that w...

Perhaps the hon. Lady misunderstands the Bill. It is at the heart of empowering consumers—empower...

Colleagues who remember my speech during the debate on the Queen’s Speech at the start of this Se...

The hon. Lady has mentioned the word “fraud” twice now. If a fraud has been committed, does she n...

I do agree, but people who report fraud or illegal activities to Action Fraud are finding that th...

Following the contribution of the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson), I...

I want to focus on certain aspects of the Bill that relate to the changing landscape of the types...

Does my hon. Friend not agree that one of the great problems with some of those calls is how the ...

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention, and she is absolutely right to say that there is a p...

Is it not the case that when certain groups of people take those calls they take a backward step?...

We should never forget that those sub-companies have targets, and they will do anything to meet t...

I welcome this important Bill. We have heard much about its impact and the positive benefits that...

Given what the hon. Gentleman has just said, does he welcome the European directive on alternativ...

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. I welcome the fact that competition regulation can be prop...

The hon. Member for South Thanet (Laura Sandys) said that she had previously worked for the Consu...

Has the hon. Lady found, as I have, that this matter is of particular concern to our older consti...

That is correct. I suspect that that may be a reason why older people get so many nuisance calls....

More and more people are coming to my surgeries and indicating that, because of the type of contr...

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. We must examine that issue more carefully, because ...

I support the Bill, because it must be right to simplify a complex area of law by reducing eight ...

Like the hon. Member for Dudley South (Chris Kelly), and others, I have no problem in welcoming a...

I congratulate the shadow Minister on the points she made, which we fully endorse, underlining th...

My hon. Friend mentions constituents and the Consumer Council. Like other hon. Members, I am sure...

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing that matter to the House’s attention. I think that every spea...

I am slightly disappointed that my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (John Woodcock) ...

This has been a wide-ranging debate with many useful and, on occasion, entertaining contributions...

If the law is there to deal with this problem, why is it still happening? A constituent contacted...

If the hon. Lady would listen, I just said that the Department has written to public enforcers to...

Will the hon. Lady clarify something? I think I heard her say that some of the issues raised by h...

Some of the issues that the hon. Lady raised related to unfair contract terms, which I shall come...

I hesitate to have a mini-debate, but the difficulty is that under the reasonable care and skill ...

Because the services sector is so incredibly broad and varied, what is the case in one area would...