Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

My Lords, as always, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, speaking from the Back Benches, defending his new Minister. As far as I was aware, I was speaking to the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations and the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations, both of which, having read them, contain the potential for fines and up to two years’ imprisonment. That is my point. It seems to me that that would have been better dealt with in primary legislation rather than forcing us into the position where we cannot amend, but only turn down or approve. My second substantive point is on the difficulty in which I find myself. Noble Lords will have received representations from Which?, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, refers to as, ““Oh God””. I have never thought of it in any divine capacity. It has made a sensible point, which should be the subject of debate. If these regulations are passed, which I support, and if an individual or a business has been subjected to an unfair commercial practice, why do the regulations not permit that individual or business to get out of the contract which they have been induced to enter into as a result of that unfair commercial practice? It is a perfectly sensible point, which should be subject to debate. We cannot amend the regulations, so those people who might be persuaded that that is a good point have only the option to object to the regulations—which we do not object to. It seems that all the Government can do, if this is a serious point, is monitor the effect of the regulations, see how many cases in practice are uncovered where people ought to be allowed relief from onerous contracts imposed as a result of unfair commercial practices, and then bring back new regulations. Going back to my first point, that seems to be an unsatisfactory way to deal with this issue.