Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 6: 6: Clause 4, page 3, line 17, leave out ““before each financial year publish”” and insert ““publish triennially”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, the amendment would replace the existing requirement on the NCC to publish its forward work programme every year with one requiring it to publish the forward work programme every third year. That is appropriate for several reasons. While it is important that the NCC is alert to the rapid changes in the consumer world—and I have every confidence that that will continue to be the case, given its new status—I remain to be convinced that that requires a forward work programme every year. A common criticism of organisations in both the public and private sectors is their ““short-termism”” and failure to plan properly for the long term. The amendment seeks to put that right. Furthermore, it is important not to underestimate the time, effort and money that go into the production of a full forward work programme. Noble Lords will be aware of how debilitating a constant publication deadline would be, when an organisation could better spend its time working on its core purposes. What is more, the Government recognise this in both local government and mainstream government agencies. Local development schemes require councils to set out policy every three years, on a rolling scheme, and the police authorities set out three-year strategic plans. A three-year plan allows time to produce a report, while ensuring that planned work can be budgeted for much more efficiently. In Committee, the Minister’s words were most encouraging. He stated: "““It is normal practice to provide indicative budgets for three years ahead to aid planning and provide certainty””.—[Official Report, 18/12/06; col. GC 174.]" If budgets need to be planned under a three-year framework to provide certainty, it is surely somewhat illogical for the programme of work to operate on any other basis. Clause 6 requires the NCC to produce an annual report that informs the Secretary of State and Parliament of the council’s activities within the year, but I do not see why it is necessary for the NCC to do both these things on a yearly basis. I believe that it would be far more fruitful to the NCC to enjoy some flexibility and discretion in carrying out its duties to enable it to focus on the task of championing the consumer. I beg to move.