UK Parliament / Open data

Consumer Rights Bill

Proceeding contribution from Baroness King of Bow (Labour) in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 15 October 2014. It occurred during Debate on bills and Committee proceeding on Consumer Rights Bill.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her response but the key point here is that consumers, in some circumstances, will see a reduction in their rights under the current law. That is what would worry me, if I were one of the Ministers taking the Bill through. It is the Consumer Rights Bill, not a consumer rights reduction Bill. Notwithstanding the examples of pregnant women all over Britain, we want to see those rights upheld. The Minister spoke about the undue burdens on business. In theory, I could have

some sympathy with what she was saying but in fact, as things stand, we do not see Britain awash with businesses in disarray as a result of the current law. Given that, it seems strange that we would reduce the rights that consumers currently have.

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for raising the issue of balance because that is the key issue here: the balance of rights for both businesses and consumers. So, lastly, we think that this is an important issue. Both sides seem to come back to the pregnant women conversation. On hearing of this debate, should any pregnant women with backache in the middle of the night be reading the Hansard of this Committee, they will no doubt hope that they do not have overdue babies but women who have premature babies may rejoice at the current passage of the Bill. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment but we may well return to it at a future date.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
756 cc111-2GC 
Session
2014-15
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
Subjects
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