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Consumer Rights

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith (Mark Lazarowicz) on securing the debate and on how he campaigns on consumer issues more generally. I also welcome the interest shown by my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) and the hon. Member for Richmond Park (Susan Kramer), as well as the chance to follow the contributions made by the hon. Members for Solihull (Lorely Burt) and for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown). Even in this relatively short debate, a series of issues has been raised, and I will try to do justice to at least some of them. My hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh, North and Leith—I apologise for missing the start of his remarks—raised a series of specific constituency cases, not least some of the problems with new homes. Some of his constituents have found it hard to assert their rights because the firms that built their houses perhaps contracted out responsibility for completing the work to subsidiaries. One of the issues that we are concerned about is the continuing high number of complaints about home improvements and the completion of work by those who operate in that sector. Year on year, Consumer Direct continues to report high levels of complaint in that area. That is one reason why I wish to bring together key players in that sector—for want of a better phrase, to hold a home improvement summit to consider the scale of the problems and what further collective action might be taken to improve the experience of consumers. As my hon. Friend knows, whether specific action can be taken depends upon the particular circumstances of the case. However, I would be happy to have a further conversation with him if he wanted to explore whether anything else could be done to help his constituents. My hon. Friend also mentioned First Choice holidays. I hope that he will understand when I say that I cannot comment on individual cases at this stage. His concerns about the ABTA code of practice were echoed by a number of other hon. Members. From what I have heard about that case, it seems that a package had been purchased. That is significant, because rights under package travel regulations may enable civil action to be taken to secure redress for those consumers who have lost out. Again, we are dealing with specific circumstances in that case, and I would be happy to discuss them in more detail. I turn to the other matter raised by my hon. Friend—misleading websites. The Government recognise that there has been considerable concern of late about misleading websites, particularly those that appear to be similar in design to Government sites or debt advice agency sites. New protections in law protect consumers from unfair commercial practices, should misleading statements cause consumer loss. Those regulations have strengthened protections—for example, introducing a general duty on traders in all sectors not to treat consumers unfairly. They came into force in May 2008, and they prohibit unfair marketing practices, both online and in the high street. If the attention of the Office of Fair Trading or trading standards officers is drawn to specific cases, action can be taken. I shall give an example of such action being taken on the question of misleading websites and debt advice. The OFT has recently taken action against firms posing as Government-endorsed or other sorts of official debt advice service. The OFT has initiated action against 27 websites, closed a number down and forced improvements in how others present themselves. The OFT is working closely with Citizens Advice and other consumer organisations to monitor what is going on in the sector and will continue to take action to shut down rogue websites.