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Confident Consumers

I apologise, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I will get some oil on the old bones by the end of this debate. I thank the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Sir Robert Smith) for his explanation. I have heard of people getting their excuses in first, but the truth is that he did want to abolish it all and did not give any commitment at the time. Since then, the Liberal Democrats have done a flip-flop, but they are not the only party to do those. The Government are committed to a consumer and competition regime that is fair to consumers and business. We take seriously our responsibility to help the most vulnerable consumers in the market and have set ourselves a target of raising our consumer regime to the level of the world’s best by 2008. Some of our more recent initiatives will provide valuable assistance to the most financially disadvantaged in society, including extra funding for debt advice and tackling the menace of loan sharks. I shall explain those schemes further later. The Government remain committed, as we have always said, to a system of competitive markets, with the pressure to retain custom as a powerful incentive on business to be efficient and act with integrity and responsibility. Companies that thrive in a competitive market are those that give their customers what they want. Those companies that do not do so will struggle to stay in the market. Confident, empowered consumers must be key to the success of competitive markets. That confidence helps drive markets. Consumers who are confident have the right information to know how to spot a good deal, have the confidence to know when they are being ripped off, and are confident that they are backed up by enforcers with the power to protect them from crooks and dodgy dealers. We are undertaking several major initiatives designed to create those confident consumers. Last year, we published a strategy for empowering consumers, and I am pleased to report that we have made significant progress in meeting many of our objectives. Chief among those successes have been the establishment of the Consumer Direct helpline, the announcement of proposals to strengthen and streamline consumer advocacy and the introduction of the Consumer Credit Act.