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Consumer Rights

I congratulate the hon. Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith (Mark Lazarowicz) on introducing this important debate. He has three bees in his bonnet, but lots of other bees are buzzing around on all sorts of consumer protection issues, and I want to address some of those issues in addition to the hon. Gentleman's points. The Office of Fair Trading reports that 3 million people a year fall victim to scams using post, text and e-mail. With the credit crunch, the scammers' target has become some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Although we do not want to take a nanny-state attitude to protection and regulation, it is clear that such unfair practices must be sorted out.