Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Bill [Lords]

The Minister is dealing with the matter in a reasonable way, and much of what he said I expected him to say. New clause 2, which was tabled by the Liberal Democrats, contains two important aspects that we have not yet discussed. It is relevant to discuss it now. One is the issue of professional indemnity for estate agents. If they do not have professional indemnity, one must rely solely on the redress scheme. The Government ought to think about that. On Second Reading in the other place, a great deal of discussion was had on the Farepak debacle and the whole issue of holding other peoples’ money. There will be a number of activities in which estate agents hold peoples’ money. It will not be long before we have a scandalous case of a rogue estate agent holding a client’s money and disappearing with it. I wonder whether the Government could give some thought to that.