Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

My Lords, it is my pleasant duty to welcome the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, to his new responsibilities on the government Front Bench. There will be battles ahead, I assure him of that, but not this evening—just a little gentle questioning for clarification. We took an overview of these statutory instruments. The consumer and business protection SIs, as the Minister has said, come as a result of the implementation of the European unfair commercial practices directive. I have consulted Malcolm Harbour MEP and the office of my honourable friend in another place, Mark Prisk, and for once we do not view these measures as gold-plating and regard them as relatively uncontroversial. The Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act order brings into force the section of the Act that requires the National Consumer Council to produce a forward work programme before each financial year. That is my overview. At this point I will admit that I was chair of the National Consumer Council, and I am nervous about the idea of turning something that has been so good and productive under so many Governments for so many years into a great big organisation that is swallowing up other organisations. My worry is that it will get slower and slower. With regard to the consumer protection from unfair trading regulations and the business protection from misleading marketing regulations, I can repeat, as the Minister has done, all the things it is hoped that they will achieve—but rather than wasting your Lordships’ time, as we do not aim to be difficult in either of those areas, I shall just make a couple of points. Perhaps the Minister, on behalf of the Government, could give me some clarification on them. Some of the key concepts in the directive might be interpreted differently by different member states. For example, what is perceived as likely to distort the economic behaviour of an average consumer can differ significantly across Europe. What assurances can the Minister give that the directive will be interpreted uniformly? Have the relevant enforcement authorities been engaging with their counterparts in the other member states to ensure a uniform implementation of the key aspects of the directive and to develop ways of co-operating on areas where problems might arise due to national differences? What specific steps are the Government taking to assist SMEs in ensuring that they comply with the provisions of the legislation, both nationally and when they market products in other member states? On that topic, is the Minister satisfied that the Office of Fair Trading and Trading Standards have sufficient resources to investigate suspicions of misleading packaging, and will he undertake to put the number of actions taken against misleading packaging on record each year? The Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007 brings into force Section 5—