Legislative Consent Memorandum
Consumers, Estate Agents And Redress Bill
Motion
1. The motion to be put to the Parliament is:
"That the Parliament endorses the principle of giving consumers an effective voice as set out in the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill, introduced in the House of Lords on 16 November 2006, and agrees that the relevant provisions to achieve this end in the Bill should be considered by the UK Parliament."
Background
2. This memorandum has been lodged by Nicol Stephen, Deputy First Minister, under Rule 9B.3.1(a) of the Parliament's standing orders. The Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 16 November 2006. The Bill can be found at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills/200607/consumers_estate_agents_and_redress.htm
3. Its main aim is to strengthen and streamline the support given to consumers in Great Britain. It is also being used to strengthen consumers' rights in connection with estate agents and doorstep selling.
Content of Bill
4. The Bill will deal with 3 policy proposals: to strengthen and streamline consumer advocacy, to require estate agents to belong to an independent approved redress scheme and to extend the cancellation and cooling-off rights that consumers currently enjoy in relation to contracts entered into during unsolicited visits by traders also to solicited visits. Consumers will be defined to include those receiving services from government departments and local and public authorities, as well as from the private sector. Only the first proposal relates to devolved issues and the rest of this Memorandum deals with that.
5. The Bill will establish a single consumer advocacy body to be known as the National Consumer Council (NCC). This will be formed by merging the existing NCC, the Gas and Electricity Consumer Council (energywatch) and the Consumer Council for Postal Services (Postwatch) into the new body. All 3 bodies currently exercise functions in relation to Scotland. The current NCC has a committee for Scotland, the Scottish Consumer Council (SCC) and the new body will establish a committee for Scotland, also to be known as SCC. It will have an office in Scotland and the Chair and members of the Council will be appointed in consultation with Scottish Ministers.
6. The NCC will have 3 core functions, similar to the current NCC: representation, research and information. It will have a power to make representations to Scottish Ministers in relation to the interests of consumers in devolved sectors. However, the Bill does not impose any duty on Scottish Ministers to act on these representations nor to do anything in response to them.
7. Consumer protection is reserved under Schedule 5 of the Scotland Act. However, the establishment of a new consumer body engages the Legislative Consent procedures as it will have the power to exercise functions in relation to food safety which is devolved. To the extent that the NCC's core functions extend beyond the regulation of the sale and supply of goods and services to consumers the Legislative Consent procedures will also be engaged.
8. The Bill also confers a power to dissolve, at some future date, statutory consumer representation bodies in the water sector in England and Wales and transfer those bodies' functions to the NCC. There is a commitment to consult on this in 2008. This power does not apply to Scotland.
9. The Bill also provides a power for service providers in the water sector in England and Wales to belong to a redress scheme. This would not apply to Scottish Water.
10. The Bill will also enable Regulators in the gas, electricity and postal sectors to prescribe complaints handling standards which will be binding on persons who hold licenses under sectoral licensing regimes.
Proposal
11. The Executive believes that Scottish consumers should have the same support as consumers in the rest of Great Britain across all aspects of policy, including food safety. Therefore it believes that the devolved elements of this Bill should extend to Scotland.
Financial Implications
12. There are no financial implications for the Scottish Executive
Scottish Executive
November 2006