Consumer Credit Bill

My hon. Friend has made a valid point. I was interested to hear my Front-Bench colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford (Mr. Prisk) discuss Lord Sainsbury, who issues quite a lot of credit lines to people who subscribe to his supermarket chain. There is nothing wrong with that—but how on earth would it be policed if the OFT did not have a database or background information? As I have said, I defy anyone to work out who is doing what. Will the OFT have the power to force those companies to let it know about such changes on a set date? Will such companies have 28 days or 14 days for compliance, and how will someone know whether their account has been moved? I am sure that most hon. Members have mortgages—one or two of us have more than one—and one must know from whom one is borrowing money. There is no guarantee that the OFT will be able to police such matters in the long term. I am not convinced that the resources will be available for the individual companies to be put into their slots for the long term and controlled by the OFT. Governments are very good at cutting resources, and we have seen too many examples of such organisations being slimmed down, in terms of manpower and resources. The Rural Payments Agency is a good example. If it goes wrong, who is responsible? The Bill is delightful and will provide protection, but the underlying problem is that when big companies start to play, they do not care who they hurt. If they start to hurt the most vulnerable people in society, the credit unions and others are left to pick up the pieces. If we then do not let the OFT do its job, or we do not give it the powers, or it does not have the resources, the Bill will be worthless. I ask the Minister to ensure that that is built in.