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Confident Consumers

First, I apologise to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and to my right hon. Friend the Minister for missing part of the opening speech. The debate is important and well informed, and there is a measure of agreement between all parties on some of the issues. I want to speak about the role of information in creating confident consumers and mechanisms for protecting them. I also want to speak about my trade union interests and those who supply the consumer with information. Consumers can be confident only if those who serve them are well trained and motivated. It is obvious that consumers need access to adequate information to be confident. In several services—for example, financial services—that we all use, such information is not available. Most of us are used to the plethora of credit card letters on our door step every morning that offer us many different deals, structures and so on. That does not inform consumers, it simply bewilders them. One of the problems with financial services is that, although we have a system of necessary regulation, we have no system of standardising the important parts of product information. I hope that my right hon. Friend, as Minister responsible, will consider the matter. The Treasury Committee recommended that in one of its most recent reports and I strongly endorse the recommendation. Let us consider food provision. We have perhaps become a more cranky and individualistic society in many ways. That is healthy and what consumers should do when there is choice. We have taken huge steps forward on food labelling, some of which have been absolutely vital. Some of my children have specific allergies, and they need the protection that proper labelling can provide. One of my daughters has an allergy to corn, for example, and it is important for her to know when a particular food product contains corn. We have made advances in the provision of information on food products, but we have not yet gone far enough to give consumers the confidence to make these choices. There may be personal moral choices involved—for vegetarians, for example—or health choices. I urge my right hon. Friend the Minister to consider one particular anomaly in the food production system. It is perhaps a difficult question, but it is worth examining. It involves the big gap that now exists between the producers of food sold through shops and those who produce for the restaurant or café trade. Food labelling in restaurants and cafés is still virtually non-existent, and we need to look at that issue if we are to offer adequate protection to the public. I agree with the points made by Opposition Members about what we should be looking for in our systems of regulation. It worries me that our big utilities are quite resistant to the consumer. I have experienced this myself; my right hon. Friend the Minister, who is also a north-western MP, will know—I say this perhaps a little unfairly—that it is not always a joy and a pleasure to try to get through the almost impenetrable wall in order to deal with United Utilities. That can be difficult even for a Member of Parliament, and it is often much more difficult for someone who genuinely has a leak in their water supply. The same arguments apply to the other utilities and energy industries. I have a great deal of sympathy with the points made by Opposition Members on the role of Energywatch. When we change the way in which we protect consumers, we must be careful not to throw away the advantage of the personal service that Energywatch has provided. We must recognise that we need that type of direct advocacy service when dealing with the large utilities. Perhaps we can manage to retain that, with Consumer Direct as well. It should not impossible to ensure the continuation of the good work that Energywatch has done in the past. In some industries, regulation is not yet up to speed. Legal services have been mentioned in that regard. I have never been a great fan of the Law Society being the regulator of solicitors when complaints are made against them. We need to look at how we regulate such services. Fortunately, most of us use them only rarely, but it can be very stressful for people when things do go wrong. I am sure that all Members of Parliament have had that experience. Many years ago, I had a fairly detailed knowledge of the building trade. I know that it still contains those who glory in the title of the cowboy builder and, alas, from time to time, my constituents come face to face with these people. It is difficult to determine how much and what kind of regulation we should have such industries, and I am prepared to accept that sometimes the most appropriate regulation can be provided from within the industry. However, those services are not comprehensively regulated at the moment. There are interesting examples from other countries, in which membership of a trade association is mandatory, and that may or may not be a way forward here. I can see the value of such an arrangement, because trade associations can help to inspire confidence by providing properly structured trade agreements that offer the necessary protection. The hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone) mentioned his own experience in that regard. Such an arrangement could serve as a model for the building trade. My right hon. Friend the Minister mentioned shop workers and Sunday trading. It is axiomatic that, if we are to create consumer confidence, our consumers need to be served by well motivated, well trained staff, be they shop workers or people who work in the hospitality industry. We still have some way to go in this country in relation to changing public attitudes towards people who serve in those roles. Unlike in the United States, their jobs are sometimes seen as menial. However, many of our constituents now look to those industries for employment, and we need to guarantee that they will have a system of career development through properly structured training schemes. Trade unions have a strong role to play in that form of training and education. In that industry, in which there is direct contact with consumers, not all of whom are confident and decent, violence against shop workers, for example, is a major issue. The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers has been anxious to campaign on that recently. It is legitimate to promote responsible as well as confident consumers, and one of their responsibilities is not to assault physically or abuse verbally those engaged in providing such services.