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Public Bodies Bill [HL]

My Lords, briefly, I support the amendment. We have had an excellent debate. I cannot believe that the Minister, who knows a lot about this subject, is not somewhat uneasy in the light of what she has heard. We have had excellent contributions from my noble friends Lady Hayter, Lord Whitty and Lord Borrie, and from the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, who really know their stuff in this area, as I know she does. If she is thinking about how to win an argument within government for a change of policy on this issue, perhaps I may suggest that abolishing the National Consumer Council—Consumer Focus—is a deeply anti-big society move. If you look at the history of the consumer movement in Britain, you will see that in the 1950s there was a tremendous growth of interest in consumerism on the part of social democrats, such as the late Lord Young of Dartington and some of the progressives from the Conservative Party who wanted to see a different kind of politics from the clash between employers and trade unions, and who wanted a third voice—a consumer voice—to be represented. There was the establishment of Which? magazine and the Good Food Guide—voluntary efforts to try to represent the consumer. It quickly became evident that there was a collective action problem. If you were to have an effective voice for the consumer you could not just do this through, as it were, voluntary initiative and activity; you had to have a public institution that would represent consumer interests that had the expertise and capabilities so to do. By abolishing Consumer Focus we are taking away that ability for collective action which must supplement individual complaints and other initiatives. The Citizens Advice movement is basically about representing individuals and dealing with individual problems rather than collective action. I do not see an effective consumer voice as being anti-business or as an expensive quango that operates against business. I see it as good for business. Something that represents the consumer effectively is very good for business. I would make a strong argument inside the Government that it is time to rethink. I hope that in the light of what she has heard, the Minister will be prepared to do that.