My Lords, this has been a fascinating debate. Some really interesting questions have been posed, not least by the noble Lords, Lord Knight and Lord Whitty. I reassure noble Lords that I will write to all noble Lords who I have not answered by the end of my response and place a copy in the Library.
We all care passionately about the provision of public services. I am sure I do not need to remind noble Lords that our reason for not including improvements to our public services explicitly in the Bill is not that we do not consider them important. They are vital, and I am proud to say that this Government have done much to change and improve public services.
This Bill will benefit all consumers by setting out in one place consumer rights. This Bill will empower consumers. To maintain that clarity and consolidation, we have not included specific provisions for public services in the Bill. When asked in the other place, the Office of Fair Trading said:
“If you want to deal with consumer rights and the public sector, there is probably a different way to go. This is a simplification and consolidation Bill that is trying to ensure that consumer rights are clear and in one place”.—[Official Report, Commons, Consumer Rights Bill Committee, 11/2/14; col. 49.]
While there are no explicit provisions in the Bill on public services, some public services will attract the rights and remedies under the Bill. Services will attract these rights and remedies if they are supplied under a contract between the consumer and a public body. That is the test. This is because the definition of “trader” is wide enough to capture the activities of any government department or local or public authority. Consumers of public services provided under a contract with the provider will therefore benefit from the Bill with clearer rights, clearer remedies and ultimately better outcomes. That is a good thing. We will make it clear in our guidance to consumers and traders that this is the case.
Turning to those public services that are not covered by the provisions in the Bill, let me be very clear that these consumers are nevertheless protected—and in a way that often provides more tailored, specific and appropriate safeguards, designed to fit the particular service. Many of these tailored regimes already incorporate just the sort of protections that these amendments discuss: independent advocacy, regular reporting and established ombudsman schemes.
Several sectors have well established alternative dispute resolution services. For example, the role of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman is to investigate complaints that individuals have been treated unfairly or received poor service from government departments, other public organisations or the NHS in England. The ombudsman’s powers are set out in
law and the service is free for everyone. In 2012-13, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman resolved 26,358 inquiries for consumers. In 2012-13, the Local Government Ombudsman responded to more than 90,000 contacts from the public.
We all share the vision of public services provided to a high standard, where consumer feedback and consumer choice work to push up standards. The noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, mentioned the issues of signposting to ombudsmen. As my honourable friend Jenny Willott explained in the other place, the Minister for Government Policy, my right honourable friend Oliver Letwin MP, commissioned Robert Gordon to review the ombudsman landscape, thus considering the case for a single public sector ombudsman. He will report to the Minister before Christmas and we are committed to considering his recommendations. It would be premature to take action in this Bill before the review is completed.
I turning to the specific amendments tabled. The first is Amendment 50K. I am sure that all noble Lords are aware of the Open Public Services agenda. It is based on five principles for reform: decentralisation; choice; diversity of provision; fair access; and accountability. To achieve these objectives, we want to ensure that consumers of public services are empowered to raise concerns and that service providers learn from those complaints. In March, the Public Administration Select Committee published a report following its inquiries into complaint handling across government and the role of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. As my right honourable friend the Minister for Government Policy made clear at the time, we agree that the ombudsman can play an important role in improving complaints handling and we are committed to working collaboratively with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and other public service ombudsmen to deliver an accessible and effective complaint-handling process from first contact with a service to final resolution by an ombudsman.
There is now a set of choice frameworks covering NHS care, social housing, schools, funded early education and adult social care. These documents clearly set out the choices available to service users, as well as instructions for seeking redress if those choices are not satisfied. To offer clarity to the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, these frameworks tell the consumer who is responsible and who to complain to. We are now looking at new digital channels for the public to register complaints about public services. This is in response to the Public Administration Select Committee’s report on complaint handling in the public sector. By way of example, we are working with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Land Registry on initial trials during the autumn.
On independent advocacy, as we said before in Grand Committee, we also prioritise making sure that consumers know their rights. Consumers of public services have access to advice, information and advocacy from government-funded channels such as Citizens Advice or GOV.UK. In addition, other bodies such as Age UK act as consumer advocates, especially for more vulnerable consumers.
Citizens Advice provides much of this advocacy. A spokesman was asked in the other place about including reforms to public services within the Bill. He said:
“I am not sure about that, if I am honest. It is not something that we have thought through sufficiently to get to a yes or no answer to that question. There are other ways of dealing with public sector services problems than a consumer rights Bill”.
When asked the same question, Which? said that,
“there are so many things that could fall within the scope of the Bill or could be added to it, and it could become unwieldy. So it is a question of priorities”.
I agree with those views. Public services are indeed important. We are committed to their improvement, but that is ongoing—outside this Bill.
Moving to the regulated sectors and Amendment 105A, it is important that consumer rights in regulated sectors are protected and that they are given sufficient information to make informed decisions. Regulators already have a statutory duty to look after consumer interests and must report annually on how they do this. Also, consumers within the sectors regulated are represented by relevant consumer bodies: for example, the Consumer Council for Water, Passenger Focus and Consumer Futures, which is now part of Citizens Advice.
There is also a lot happening to ensure consumers are able to get the best possible information across the board. In 2012-13, Citizens Advice helped 2.1 million clients through its bureaux with free advice. There were nearly 1 million contacts through its consumer helpline and also 14 million hits to its website. Some 91% of consumers reported that they would use the service again. This service reports to Government twice yearly on its performance against agreed standards.
Noble Lords can therefore feel reassured that regulators indeed do a lot for consumers already. With regard to the provision of advice and information, Citizens Advice reports twice annually on its performance. There is also much being done both by regulators and government to help consumers. Therefore, the amendment proposed is an unnecessary duplication of effort. I ask noble Lords not to press their amendments and to withdraw Amendment 50K.