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Farepak

I will be as brief as I can, Miss Begg. I have written to two dozen chief executives of high street businesses. A couple have responded already, but I found it almost breathtaking that one said that although they could not help directly, one idea that might be of interest would be if they sought to raise funds through collections or other fundraising activities in their stores. I am pleading with those companies to fork out and to help people, not to ask their customers to put money into a collection. That is not what is required. In all honesty, I do not know how many people in my constituency have been affected or the sums involved. Before the debate, I spoke to someone connected with the administrators and asked whether they knew the numbers of agents and customers or the sums involved. The answer was simply, ““No, we don’t.”” Findel may well say that it has a database, but I am not convinced that anyone knows the true figures. I echo the plea that was made earlier: the British Retail Consortium should return to the table. However, above all else, we need to investigate the matter fully and if there has been criminal activity, we should deal with those people through the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. We need to deal with that once we have tried to recover the situation for the good people of this country who put their faith in the company.