Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 1: Page 1, line 8, after ““a”” insert ““decision-making”” The noble Lord said: It may be for the convenience of the Committee if I speak to a rather large grouping. I think that all the amendments are in my name and basically cover the same issue. Although I was unable to speak at length on Second Reading, I mentioned that I was concerned about the expression ““territorial committee””. In Part 1, we are dealing with something that will be called the National Consumer Council, and territorial committees apparently to be set up in Wales and Scotland. I will speak only to those amendments that are substantive and not consequential in this long group. The point of my amendments is to reassert the principle of devolution. The new Scottish Consumer Council and Welsh Consumer Council—the bodies that were—are defined in the Bill as territorial committees of the new National Consumer Council. The Bill defines the remit of those committees as being: the, "““provision of advice and information””," to the new NCC about ““consumer matters”” affecting Scotland or Wales respectively; "““the provision of advice to the Council about the exercise of the Council’s functions in so far as they affect””," Scotland or Wales respectively; and, "““such other purposes as the Council may determine””." That is not in any measure satisfactory. At present, the Welsh Consumer Council and, as I understand it, the Scottish Consumer Council—my noble friend may wish to speak on that matter—respond directly to Welsh and Scottish Ministers. It seems an odd retreat of the Government from devolution that they now wish to make those bodies subservient to a National Consumer Council and only to offer advice. The aim of Amendment No. 3 is to ensure thatthe core functions of the council—representation, information and research—are properly delegated to those bodies now called territorial committees, slightly offensively, in respect of council activities in the areas that they cover. Clause 1(4) allows but does not require the new NCC to delegate functions to the new territorial committees. However, that provides no safeguard for the future. The wording that I suggest is very simple. It is used in the Equality Act to describe the relationship between the UK Commission for Equality and Human Rights and its committees in Scotland and Wales. Amendment No. 4 concerns the relationship between the National Consumer Council and its—regrettably, I use the term again—territorial committees. The point of the amendment is to ensure that, before the National Consumer Council exercises one of its functions in a way that may affect an area covered by a territorial committee, the matter must be discussed with the territorial committee in question. That seems absolutely essential. Again, the wording is taken from the Equality Act 2006, and I believe—