Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 8: Page 42, line 25, leave out ““may”” and insert ““shall”” The noble Baroness said: This fearsomely long group of amendments explores a single point of principle. For what new purpose will the NCC exist? The Bill does not spell out the principle of the NCC’s primary duty. What ““shall”” it do and what ““may”” it do? Nothing in the Bill promotes, campaigns for or protects the interests of consumers through advocacy. I could have proposed an amendment to fill that gap. Instead, I chose to take what the Government have tabled and explore the effect of changing the word ““may”” to ““shall””. At this stage, it is important to examine exactly what the Government think the Bill should achieve. The consumer’s voice needs to be strengthened for a number of reasons, partly because of the enormous changes that are taking place in areas that we shall be discussing, be it mail and post offices, energy or water. Those are all going through some fundamental changes, and I am sure that we will come to them in later clauses. Without establishing exactly what the NCC’s duties are to be, it is very difficult to be certain that the Bill is taking the right approach. It is not good enough for the DTI simply to bring forward a Bill and say, ““Yes, we’ve streamlined; we’ve got rid of some red tape. We’ve done our bit in streamlining””. We intend to ensure that that does not happen. Perhaps the Minister can help me on one point. The word ““may”” appears in a large number of clauses. I shall run through some of them without, I hope, wearying the Committee. For example, my Amendment No. 8 concerns a provision in the Bill that states that staff appointments ““may”” be made to the NCC; Amendments Nos. 9 to 12 concern the NCC’s regional committees, which we have just discussed; Amendment No. 13 would ensure that the council ““shall”” regulate its own procedure; and Amendment No. 44 would strengthen the council’s representative function to ensure that it provides advice, makes proposals and represents. I recommend most strongly the use of the word ““shall”” in Amendments Nos. 44, 72 and 73, so that the council really ““shall”” have the representative function and ““shall”” be concerned with issuing advice, information and guidance in improving standards and promoting the interests of consumers. Surely those functions should not be optional, and I cannot understand why the draftsmen have used the word ““may”” in those instances. At the very minimum, it should be changed to ““shall””. Amendments Nos. 77, 78, 82 and 84 concern co-operation, giving assistance and voluntary activities, and perhaps those are areas where it would be appropriate to use the word ““may””. However, it is incumbent on the Government to establish why they have chosen not to be specific about what the NCC ““shall”” and ““may”” do. If they do not set out the principle behind this body at the heart of the Bill, they then have to spell out very precisely what its duties are and what it may consider doing voluntarily. The two little words ““may”” and ““shall”” are incredibly important. We cannot get this wrong at this stage. Depending on the Minister’s reply, the Committee may feel that it is appropriate to introduce a principle but, if we fail to draft the Bill more tightly, we shall have failed indeed. I do not propose to go through the effect of each of the amendments, as that would take a substantial amount of time. I hope that the examples that I have given are sufficiently illustrative for Members of the Committee to take on board my point. I am sure that that is so but, if the Committee would like me to explain any of them further, I shall be pleased to do so. I beg to move.