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Confident Consumers

As the hon. Gentleman knows, that is a matter for the Leader of the House, on whom the hon. Gentleman will have to use his persuasive talents. But whether or not that debate takes place, day in, day out, this Government will act to support small businesses, while you talk about it. The hon. Gentleman made a serious point about the need for action and financial capability. I agree that it is important that consumers have the knowledge and understanding necessary to manage their money. The Financial Services Authority is taking the lead in work on financial capability. It has launched a range of initiatives, targeting employees and parents in particular, to provide people with simple tools to enable them to assess their financial position and borrowing. As part of this strategy, we will introduce financial education into the core curriculum from 2008. The hon. Gentleman also asked whether I will meet representatives of the Association for Payment Clearing Services to discuss chip and PIN fraud. Credit card fraud is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, whose Ministers have regular contact with APACS. I can however assure the hon. Gentleman that I will meet APACS representatives to discuss a range of issues, including this one. I will not be dishonest and say that such a meeting is already in my diary, but APACS is among a list of organisations whose representatives I will be meeting very soon. If the hon. Gentleman wants to write to me on this issue, I invite him to do so. It is important not to rush change, and we judged the proposed time scale for the introduction of consumer voice as sensible. We fully understand the importance to staff of stability, and we are closely consulting existing bodies, including staff representatives. This is in no way a cost-cutting exercise. The National Consumer Council is Government funded and is at the core of the establishment of consumer voice. There is no intention to marginalise citizens advice bureaux. All such bodies are working closely together with the NCC. Consumer voice will be a statutory, independent body, which, I believe, is the commitment that the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford and others were looking for. We are considering our response to the consultation now, and we will announce the preferred option in July. Given that I have come late to this issue, I will read all the consultation documents, rather than simply looking at the recommendations made to me. I am very happy to consider the views and opinions expressed here today. If the hon. Gentleman has further opinions that he wants to express, I invite him to do so over the next few weeks. I give a genuine commitment to considering them in reaching my conclusions on the option to be announced in July. There is no better incentive for companies to resolve complaints themselves than having to pay ombudsman’s costs. The new body will have specific responsibilities for vulnerable consumers in areas such as energy. The Office of Fair Trading has a key role to play in consumer education. Like Postwatch, Energywatch has a low public profile, and it cannot enforce compensation. I should point out that there are not 280,000 stranded customers; that figure includes all those who phoned to make a simple inquiry. Energywatch can act as an advocate, but it cannot enforce solutions. On issues such as disconnection, I agree that a faster track is needed. Energywatch is consulting Ofgem on a new billing ombudsman and speeding up the processes. Consumer voice is able to retain specialist panels in relation to energy and other issues, so it has the capacity to act independently and consider issues that arise. I have no doubt that Members of Parliament, consumer organisations and consumers themselves will try to influence the work load of the body. I noticed that the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Sir Robert Smith) made a new financial commitment for a new Department. However, he did not say what would happen to state aid, regional aid and the Small Business Service. He was careful, but I caught him out in one small aspect of that disastrous policy announcement. He has tried to cauterise the wounds, but as his proposal stands, all the other services of the DTI, including insolvency, would be lost.