My Lords, I was clearly sitting in the wrong place in Grand Committee, because I did not see any Christmas bells, and that is why I am returning to the fray on Clause 23 on behalf of the motor industry.
The amendment today differs from Amendments 20A and 20B, which were tabled in Grand Committee, by the addition of a new proposed subsection (9). This additional subsection would set a time period for completion of the process of repair to give the repairer the opportunity of a further attempt or attempts at repair. This directly addresses the concerns voiced by the Minister, my noble friend Lady Jolly, and, indeed, the Opposition Front Bench. My noble friend said in Grand Committee:
“The Bill is clear that a repair is an attempt to bring the goods into compliance with the Bill’s requirements. One repair is complete once the trader returns the goods to the consumer in response to the consumer’s request for a repair”.—[Official Report, 15/10/ 14; col. GC 118.]
For the Opposition, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, acknowledged that the repair need not be done “in one go”.
The purpose of this amendment is to clarify “one repair” in law, permitting a process of repair to take place. This is to address concerns from industry that the Bill as currently drafted does not provide traders of complex consumer goods, such as motor vehicles, a fair opportunity to repair. This is an issue because complex products may show a fault that requires more than one repair, involving, for example, more than one visit to a garage so that a car’s fault can be diagnosed and tested, and causes ruled out. In addition, a repair may appear complete, but the fault may reappear—as can be the case with electrical faults—and a second or subsequent repair may fix the problem.
My previous amendment regarding this issue, moved and withdrawn in Committee, met with concerns from my noble friend as it was thought that the consumer could become locked in a never-ending cycle of repairs. This revised amendment addresses this very issue while still giving scope for a process of repair to take place. This is through the addition of a determinable end-point for the process of repair, which would be commenced on the occasion that the consumer had to return to the trader for a second attempt at the repair. At that point, the trader would have to complete the process of repair within the requisite time, to be set down by the Secretary of State.
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Traders need both flexibility and certainty in carrying out repairs, and consumers need the certainty that, if a process of repair fails, they can reject the goods and get their money back, subject to a deduction for use if it is after 30 days.
It is important to note that the amendment does not propose a fixed period within which a repair needs to be completed. If a consumer visits a car dealer with their car to have something repaired and the repair is successful, irrespective of how long it takes, as long as it is a reasonable time and does not cause significant inconvenience to the consumer, that is the end of the matter. However, if the car requires re-examining and further work to eliminate the fault, requiring the consumer to bring the car back to the dealer, at that point the dealer knows that they have a set period within which to complete the process of repair.
At the very least, my noble friend needs to amend the BIS draft goods guidance, which states at page 39 that, “The consumer only has to accept a single attempt to fix the issue with the goods by repairing or replacing the goods before s/he has a right to some money back”. This is completely inconsistent with the statement made by my noble friend in Grand Committee, to which I referred earlier. I urge whichever Minister is replying today to confirm that one repair may involve a process that requires the consumer to return to the trader with the goods on more than one occasion. I also urge the Minister to undertake to review the draft goods guidance—specifically the wording on page 39 of the current draft of 10 November.
I also take the opportunity to look forwards slightly to the Minister’s amendment to Clause 24, which has a bearing on this matter. The motor industry, through the SMMT, has told me that it supports the Minister’s Amendment 10 to Clause 24. It states that a deduction
for use in the first six months would be permitted for motor vehicles and it removes the requirement for an active second-hand market. The industry acknowledges that this amendment may well encourage consumers to accept further repairs on a new vehicle rather than bear the cost of a deduction for use if they reject. However, in this instance, the trader would be reliant on the customer’s voluntary conduct in accepting further repairs. The industry believes that the Minister’s amendment alone does not go far enough in clarifying the law for consumers and traders alike on what “one repair” entails. Such clarification would increase certainty and protection for consumers and traders. I beg to move.