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Consumer Rights

I listened carefully to what the hon. Gentleman said about new build. As he said, the national house builders body is supposed to deal with the issue, but the time and energy involved in getting redress on behalf of properties' new owners is totally inappropriate. Will the Minister tell us how the situation could be more appropriately and speedily dealt with? A constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) was a victim of an internet scam after he ordered a mini digger from eBay. When all the paperwork was done, it was agreed that there would be a five-day trial. He thought that he was giving the money to the eBay solicitor, and everything was documented. He paid £5,900 and was told that the digger was being shipped, but it never arrived. According to eBay, the problem was nothing to do with it, because the payment did not go through its approved system. The European Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, Meglena Kuneva—apologies to her if I have pronounced her name incorrectly—said that the privacy rights of internet surfers are abused by companies that amass personal information and supply it to advertisers that target consumers without their knowledge. I loved the quote from her in which she said that""the World Wide Web is turning out to be the 'world wild west'"." Again, this is a serious problem, and we need to address it in what are changing times in the area of communication. The hon. Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith mentioned holidaymakers and a company acting as a front for a more well-known company, which then takes no responsibility when things go wrong. I am sure that the Minister will have some comments to make about how that can happen. My concern is about holidaymakers who book their holidays themselves. When things go wrong, they are not covered by ABTA. The hon. Gentleman talked about First Choice and First 4 Hotels, and I agree that ABTA should take more responsibility—it cannot be a fair-weather friend. It is hugely important that the issue is addressed. Another issue about which we have had a lot of complaints in Solihull is mobile phone contracts. The contract details look good—in fact, they look great, with cash back and all sorts of other offers—but the small print ties people into long contracts with the same phone. The cash back never materialises unless people meticulously pay the relevant amount on the exact day. In 2007-08, Consumer Direct received more than 100,000 complaints about mobile phone contracts. The terms of those contracts and all other credit contracts should be made clear and understandable. Perhaps an organisation should have the responsibility for scrutinising small-print contracts; if they are not up to scratch, they should not be legally valid. Businesses are not exempt from scams, including free listings in business directories, which however mean that a company unwittingly signs up to pay for advertisements in bogus charitable publications, hard selling and grossly overpriced goods. There is also, of course, the problem of companies going into liquidation, described by the hon. Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith. There is an answer that we could use simply and cheaply to expose serial liquidators of all kinds in business: a requirement for the director of a company that goes into administration to register in a centrally kept register of administrations. Someone thinking of supplying or being supplied by a company could go to the register to see how many times its directors appeared there. That would be a simple way to help companies that might lose their livelihood because of the cynical financial manipulation of bumping a business and going on to create another. We can welcome two things this morning: first, the consultation on the European consumer credit directive, which has many good elements, including a general clause on defining unfair practices. Secondly, as the hon. Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith said, we can look forward to the White Paper on modernised consumer rights. We do not want to stifle innovation or bring about a nanny state, but somewhere in our consumer regulation, there should be a principle of basic fairness, which should not be contravened. As my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Susan Kramer) mentioned, we need protection with respect to door-to-door salespeople and the time allowed for goods to be returned. We also need the register of administration for serial liquidators, and better consumer advice, especially about communications media such as the internet, particularly for young people who buy things on the internet and discover, if those things are faulty and do not reach the required standard, that they are not confident about getting redress.