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Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL]

Perhaps I may intervene and say a few words about these amendments. I am less fussed than my noble friends Lord Williams of Elvel and Lord O’Neill of Clackmannan about the phrase ““territorial committees””. I can see that, if those words stood by themselves, they might appear somewhat insulting, particularly in the light of the devolution achievements of the earlier years of the present Government. But in Clause 1 the phrase is clearly linked and associated with, and defined as, the Welsh Consumer Council and the Scottish Consumer Council. Surely no one can feel insulted by those terms. That is what ““territorial committees”” means according to Clause 1, and so I am not worried about that. On the substantive argument of my noble friend Lord Williams of Elvel, in line with the devolution aspects of our constitution I fully agree that there should be a taken-for-granted delegation by the National Consumer Council where the matters at issue involve either Scotland or Wales. What functions is my noble friend Lord Williams talking about? He is talking about the core functions as set out in Clauses 7, 8 and 9, which we shall discuss more fully later. My only quarrel with my noble friend is that his Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 refer to those functions as ““decision-making”” ones. As I see it, the function of advising Ministers and proposing policies to them, and certainly the function of research and so on, which the National Consumer Council is given under those clauses as core functions, are only decision-making in the very narrow sense that they are decisions on the policy of the National Consumer Council. However, they are not decision-making so far as concerns the populace because the NCC does not have any executive functions at all. I am sorry if my noble friend regards this as pernickety. However, while I think that Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 are inappropriate and unnecessary, I agree with the substance of his amendments in this grouping—I shall not list them all—for the reasons that both he and my other noble friend Lord O’Neill enunciated.