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Public Bodies Bill [HL]

My Lords, like other speakers, I am grateful that we are having this debate early in the afternoon. Sadly, I will also be doing the penultimate amendment that we are dealing with today, which might happen in the early hours of tomorrow morning—just as I did the penultimate amendment late on Monday, or early on Tuesday, a couple of days ago. I should also say how grateful I was to hear quite such a large number of quotations from myself, from that relatively brief Question that we had on this matter on 7 February. It is gratifying to hear that so many noble Lords listened to what I had to say. I hope that I can add a bit to that in dealing with these amendments. I start by repeating something that the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, said when he paid tribute to what the supermarkets have done for the consumer. That is very important to remember whenever we debate these matters; we forget it at our peril. They have given us greater choice, cheaper prices and, as the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, put it, possibly ““improved the shopping experience””, whatever that means, but I think I have quoted him correctly. Nevertheless we all accept—and I think I made this clear when I responded to the question from the noble Earl—that there is an imbalance between the big four or the big 10 supermarkets, whichever way you want to count them, and the rest. Possibly something has to be done. I am grateful to the noble Earl for what he said in setting out his amendment and stressing that, as he put it, it was a Cross-Bench amendment in that he knew there was support from all sides including the Government and the Official Opposition, and it is one on which we can work. I am grateful to him also for setting out the history of this matter. I hope I can fairly briefly deal with this matter and say where we are at this moment. We are committed to the establishment of a groceries code adjudicator to monitor and enforce compliance with the groceries supply code of practice. The main purpose of the groceries code adjudicator will be to ensure the code’s effectiveness in stopping supply chain practices by retailers which transfer excessive risks and unexpected costs to suppliers, as set out in great detail by the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Dillington. I am very grateful again for what he had to say. Its functions will include investigating potential breaches of the code as well as arbitrating disputes arising under the code. In this amendment the noble Earl and others seek to include this in the Bill. The noble Baroness, Lady Quin, said she would have welcomed this in the Bill. I have a sneaking feeling if we had put it in the Bill she would still have put down an amendment to take it out, but that is the nature of opposition and that is what Oppositions do. I have been there myself and I know. We will leave that and the noble Baroness need not respond. I want to make clear that we do not think that it is appropriate for this Bill. What we will do is set out the roles, functions and powers in full, in a draft Bill. I stress that this will be a draft Bill, so it is something that can be considered and discussed and we can make sure that we get it right—not that we do not get other Bills right, but with a draft Bill there is a slightly longer process—and that it will be published around Easter. I must apologise to the right reverend Prelate that, in the past, colleagues in the Government from DBIS did say they hoped to get one out last year. I think earlier on it was said we might get one before Easter. My advice is now that we will get that published around Easter. Easter, as we know, is a moveable feast, but at least we know when it is this year and we are not constrained by any fixed date.