My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for having met some of the underlying issues in her answer. Possibly the most immediate is that I wanted to change the word “the” into the word “a” twice. My noble friend’s answer showed just how complex that was. She went into a great list of things that could happen if you did not have “the” and suddenly found you had only “a”. I fully accept that. This is a very complex situation. My worry is that I do not believe that it has been carefully thought through.
Now we are dependent on the consultation. The questions that arise are: who will design the consultation? What questions will be asked? What are the answers? What is the Government’s response to those answers? That is a great worry, particularly on the SME point, and here I thank my noble friend Lord Hunt for his professional contribution.
I worked in industry for a great deal of my career, and for quite a lot of the time I was involved with small and medium-sized enterprises. I cannot imagine any of those that I was involved with thinking of going into a collective action unless they were represented by their trade association or some body that would manage to get itself organised in such a way that it could be defined as a trade association, which is not a very difficult thing to do. The idea that bodies representing consumers and trade associations are not wide enough but all that needs adding are small and medium-sized enterprises does not seem to run.
I will think very carefully about what was said about this amendment and what was said in reply and see whether there is a case for bring the matter back at Third Reading, obviously on a somewhat different basis. In the mean time, I look forward to the assurance that there will be meetings with people who know about these matters before the consultation goes out.
It is quite surprising that the legal profession, apart from my noble friend Lord Hunt, has been absent from these discussions. The legal profession is very keen to participate in your Lordships’ discussions. This is a major change in the law. We had very helpful assistance from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, but no other. That is quite surprising.
I retain the apprehension that this is a minefield and that we may get blown up. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.