---

Confident Consumers

The Government seem to have two standards: one for business outside, and another for the way in which they act when consumers deal with Government Departments. Experiences in the energy sector throw up various aspects of the way in which consumers can influence and make decisions. Everyone says that it is a no-brainer that consumers will benefit from improving the insulation of their houses, yet we still find it difficult to promote conservation and energy efficiency. Perhaps that is because consumers do not necessarily have confidence in, or information about, the product, or because they do not trust those selling it. One may have a good solution, but unless the market is well informed and consumers are confident, one cannot deliver it. The market may not be the only means of delivering measures such as energy efficiency. Building regulations and minimum standards set by the Government are still important in delivering good-quality products to the market. As has been said, Energywatch offers an important advocacy service for individuals. It would be a great mistake, however, to assume that every individual has the skills and powers to make use of an ombudsman service. In the telecommunications sector, people must wait 12 weeks before being allowed access to the ombudsman, Otelo. If people are about to be cut off, that is far too long to wait to resolve the problem. Some of 87 per cent. of Energywatch’s cases are dealt with within seven weeks, but under an ombudsman scheme there would be an additional five-week wait before the resolution process even began. It is extremely important that the Minister should look at the consultation to see whether the new regime can maintain an advocacy service for individuals and provide a more robust ombudsman scheme, following the initiative with Scottish and Southern Energy. If Energywatch receives a complaint from a consumer about Scottish and Southern, it works with the company to fast-track the complaint and refer it within two weeks. That is different from the traditional ombudsman’s role, but it is a much faster way of resolving disputes. The role of citizens advice bureaux has been mentioned. The decoupling of the work on individual complaints from the role as a general advocate for the consumer could lead to a loss of touch with the coalface. Because Members of Parliament deal with individual cases, we can start to see patterns emerging. If we deal with a significant amount of Child Support Agency casework we realise that we cannot solve the problem by tackling the failure of bureaucracy—there is an underlying policy failure. Similarly, consumer advocates such as Energywatch, Postwatch and so on can build up a picture from the cases with which they deal and identify problems in the sector. They act as a general advocate, but their work is informed by individual experience. The Government must look at the way in which the consumer voice is heard so that the consumer experience is understood.