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Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Razzall, for supporting the amendment. I am not going to press it; I am just going to say that this is the death knell of the National Consumer Council as we knew it. What sort of information will the Government want the National Consumer Council to give them that the general public—the general consumer—cannot know about? Never in the past has the National Consumer Council had such a constraint on it and, if the clause remains, never in the future will the council be taken to be as responsive, as independent and as innocent of the Government’s agenda as it has been. I will withdraw the amendment at this stage and hope that my friends in another place may be able to persuade the Government further. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 43 [Standards for handling complaints]: