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Confident Consumers

May I begin by concurring with the Minister’s remarks about his predecessor, the hon. Member for Bradford, South (Mr. Sutcliffe)? He and I had a professional, courteous relationship, and I look forward to a similar relationship with this Minister. I welcome him to his new post. I say new, but, as he rightly highlighted, he was a Minister of State at the Department some nine years ago. It is true to say that neither the Minister nor I exactly tower over the Dispatch Box. I can recognise that, although I often feel that good things come in small packages. It has been unkindly suggested that many hon. Members look forward to he and I debating the working at height regulations. We welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue today. The Minister set out the Government’s stall. I have to say, without causing him too much concern that things are getting a little too consensual, that we welcome much of what he had to say. However, there are questions of principle and practice that I want to raise. Why do we need consumers to be confident? In this context, that means that they should be informed and empowered. I contend that confident consumers will encourage higher standards among manufacturers, shops and other service providers. Equally, informed consumers can better recognise and avoid the scams or frauds that the Minister described. Confident consumers also encourage innovation and good value simply by using their spending power wisely. Sectors such as information technology or the computer games industry show how consumer feedback directly affects future product development. That increases our competitiveness and productivity and so contributes to making this country the best place to do business. Sadly, there remains considerable room for improvement: in 1997, when the Minister was last in the Department, the UK was the world’s fourth most competitive country, but it is now the 13th. Informed and empowered consumers are good for their own welfare and for the economy as a whole, but what do those qualities mean in practice? Informed consumers know what advice they need and where to get it. They understand the consequences of their purchasing decisions but, with new and more complex products and services entering the market each week, providing that information is increasingly difficult. Ironically, it is in the areas where the financial consequences are greatest—financial services, for example—that consumers are often least well placed to make informed decisions. Indeed, I recently hosted a seminar on consumer credit that looked at issues to do with financial exclusion and education. We also examined ways to ensure that consumers are enabled, rather than trapped, by the choices that they make.