---

Manchester City Council Bill [Lords] (By Order)

My hon. Friend is on to a very good point. Indeed, I have made it in relation to my Christchurch constituency. If the Bournemouth Bill were to pass into law, if there were an issue to do with rogue trading and peddling in Bournemouth—which is hotly disputed—that activity might well transfer either to the ancient borough and market town of Christchurch, or to Wimborne, or to Poole. That is why we should, as the Minister seems to have accepted, take the opportunity to look at this on a national basis and see whether we need to make any changes within a national legislative framework. The Department commissioned St. Chad's college, Durham university to conduct the research, and the terms of reference stated:"““This should be complete this autumn.””" I am sure my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) will be pleased to learn that it also stated that the research would include"““contacting all England, Wales and Scotland local authorities and trading standards as appropriate””—" not Northern Ireland—"““contacting street trader representative organisations and sample groups of street traders; contacting pedlar representative groups and sample groups of pedlars; contacting the police to establish numbers of pedlars certificates, costs involved in issue and problems with enforcement including knowledge of existing legislation; gathering statistics across all these organisations and from any other source, that cover complaints, enforcement activity and costs of this, numbers of certificates and licences issued and revoked with related costs and court cases and costs. Number of prosecutions of traders in the street for selling counterfeit goods and/or dangerous goods and whether they involved licensed street traders, non-licensed trading in the street, holders of pedlars certificates or people without pedlars certificates.””" I congratulate the Minister on having developed such a broad, and, I think, highly relevant and pertinent, scope for that research project. The disappointment is that we do not have any of the outcome of that research available today to inform the debate. In June, the Minister said that the university project would"““consider the current position, whether the existing powers are sufficient…and what—if any—different powers would be useful to the tackling of problems relating to street trading in our towns and cities.””" He promised:"““Should the evidence…demonstrate that there is a case for national legislation, we—””" the Department—"““will assess the options available to us.””—[Official Report, 12 June 2008; Vol. 477, c. 540.]"