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Confident Consumers

I welcome the Minister to the Dispatch Box and to his new portfolio. I just wanted to make it clear that our policy was to highlight consumers by creating a separate department for consumer affairs. At the moment, the concern is that the Department of Trade and Industry is there to stand up for consumers and be the voice of business, so there is a danger that it is both poacher and gamekeeper. By separating the two roles, we would create a more powerful voice for the consumer at the heart of government.