My Lords, the Government certainly share the objective of an effective enforcement regime to protect consumers from rogues and traders from unfair competition. In this Bill we are, of course, consolidating and modernising the investigatory powers of consumer law enforcers, bringing together the powers from different Acts, and ensuring for the first time that enforcers can tackle rogue traders who operate across local authority boundaries. We have also introduced strong safeguards as to how these powers are exercised because the powers are necessarily intrusive. They allow officers to enter premises, seize goods and break open containers, for example.
Under the Bill, therefore, consumer law enforcers will now have to give notice to traders if they want to make a routine inspection. We introduced this change, following discussion in Committee, because we think it is a basic principle of civil liberties that a business should suffer the disruption of an unannounced visit only when there is some good reason, such as suspicion that a business may have broken the law. However, we recognise that trading standards has real concerns about the requirement to give notice. I want to set out the approach that we have taken in more detail before talking about my amendments.
Businesses, including small businesses, are very supportive of strong powers to investigate rogue businesses, as has been said, because they harm consumers and are unfair to them. However, businesses have told us that unannounced routine inspections by enforcers are disruptive, costly and needlessly so. For example, an officer visiting a shop may demand a lot of attention from staff at busy periods or want information that the junior staff available cannot provide. The Federation of Small Businesses told us that the safeguard of two days’ written notice of routine inspections, which can of course be sent by e-mail, will allow businesses to ensure that the appropriate staff and paperwork are available. This means that neither the trader’s nor enforcer’s time is wasted. For example, if an officer visits a retail store to check centrally-set price promotions, store colleagues may be unable to change promotions or answer questions on price establishment periods. Hence, matters that could otherwise have been cleared up quite quickly can result in primary authority referrals or a formal investigation.
Clearly, the Government are aware that much of the vital work of enforcement officers is directed at illegal trading. We very much value the excellent work of enforcers such as trading standards to protect consumers and legitimate businesses from rogue traders—including, I should add, the advisory work that the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, mentioned, which I agree is extremely valuable. Officers clearly should not have to
give notice of an inspection where illegal trading is suspected. That is why clear exemptions are set out in the Bill, which I need to go into to try to ensure that the House understands how reasonable our proposals are. As has been said, notice need not be given, for example, if there is an imminent risk to public safety. The noble Lord, Lord Best, explained that clearly.
The exemption would apply: where an enforcer reasonably suspects a breach—for example, where enforcers find evidence of illicit tobacco, such as stubs and papers, in the streets near suspected outlets; where giving notice would defeat the purpose of the entry, a good example of that being where counterfeit alcohol is being sold in local shops and the enforcer believes that the traders in question are likely to conceal the illegal products if notice is given; and where it is not reasonably practicable in all the circumstances to give notice—for example, because the officer reasonably suspects that there is an imminent risk to public health or safety, as the noble Lord, Lord Best, mentioned. There are three or four other exemptions but, taken together, these exemptions ensure that consumer protection is properly maintained because if there is evidence of a serious or immediate breach, enforcers can intervene. The Bill supports an intelligence-led approach to enforcement which is an effective use of enforcement resources.
The noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, said that test purchases were less effective if notice had not been given. However, notice need not be given for a test purchase or to observe the carrying out of business.
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Finally, it is worth noting that the police, for example, have no general powers of entry to commercial premises and can enter the premises only with reasonable suspicion or a warrant. Even with the notice requirement, enforcers such as trading standards will still have substantially more powers to enter premises than the police, who also deal with serious crimes. Since the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, mentioned it, I should say that for practical purposes, Ofsted normally gives up to two working days’ notice to further education colleges, and schools are given notice by midday on the working day before the inspection. However, there are unannounced inspections in cases of serious concern, as the noble Lord rightly mentioned.
In Committee, noble Lords were concerned that it was unclear when notice needed to be given. We listened carefully to the concerns raised and we have therefore tabled Amendments 32 to 39, which aim to put it beyond doubt that notice need be given only for routine inspections. Routine inspections under the Bill are any inspections that do not fall within the exemptions. They are typically made where trading standards considers that a business presents a risk, simply due to the nature of the sector in which it operates. Examples include visits to DIY stores and other retail outlets considered routine because there is no reason to doubt that the business is operating properly without any significant breaches of legislation, unless of course the exemptions applied. Such stores sell many different products and, as society changes more and more, services from dry cleaning to kitchen-fitting services. These need to be the subject of inspection from time
to time. Notice ensures that the business is properly prepared so that the officer can check that the supporting systems are in good order.