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Manchester City Council Bill [Lords] (By Order)

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I was about to share with the House the avowed purpose of the Durham university research. When we last debated this matter, I asked the Minister to publish the terms of reference for the research, which he kindly did. It included the following:"““The purpose of the research is to gather qualitative and quantitative evidence on how the current street trading and Pedlars' laws are currently working.""Recent local authority and private Members' Bills have suggested that some local authorities may need greater powers to enforce street licensing and to restrict the activities of pedlars. However BERR wants to gather information about the level of issues nationally and views from key interested parties eg local authorities, street traders, pedlars etc before it reaches a decision on whether to amend existing legislation or introduce new national legislation.””"