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Confident Consumers

The hon. Gentleman is trying hard, but he is drowning. Regional development agencies already have budgets, but what would happen to trade support services, insolvency and all the other responsibilities? The hon. Gentleman has a very bad policy, and that was noticed by very many consumers at the last general election. The hon. Gentleman raised several issues connected with the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Government believe that it has a strong and supportive voice for telephone reference services. I will ensure that the hon. Gentleman’s comments are drawn to the attention of my noble Friend the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, whose responsibility includes the Information Commissioner. I will ask my noble Friend to respond to the hon. Gentleman. The hon. Gentleman also raised the issue of the Post Office card account, which will be funded by the Government until 2010. That was always the plan, so the issue of the contract cannot be a surprise. However, it has not yet been settled what accounts will be available beyond 2010 and we are working closely with the Post Office to ensure that customers continue to have a choice of how to access their money at the post office. The Government have put in hundreds of millions of pounds to support the network, not only this year, but every year since we came to power.