Doorstep Salesmen (Consumer Council Recommendation)

HC Deb 04 November 1965 vol 718 cc1224-6

49. Mr. Alfred Morris

asked the Preident of the Board of Trade what reply he has sent to the Consumer Council's proposal that all initial doorstep sales be made subject to a three-day period during which buyers can return the goods and have their deposits refunded.

50. Mr. Alfred Morris

asked the President of the Board of Trade what reply he has sent to the suggestion, made to him by the Consumer Council, of a statutory' provision requiring doorstep salesmen to produce proof of identification.

51. Mr. Ioan L. Evans

asked the President of the Board of Trade what action he proposes to take to deal with the recommendation of the Consumer Council that the activities of unscrupulous doorstep salesmen should be restrained by statute.

Mr. Darling

I have told the Council that I am studying its proposals.

Mr. Morris

I thank my hon. Friend for that reply and for the very full information which his Department has sent me. Will he take it from me that there there is widespread public concern about this matter and that we would welcome a very early decision on it?

Mr. Darling

Yes, Sir. This is a matter of real urgency and we are having discussions with the Consumer Council as well as conducting our own inquiries to see whether it is possible to frame suitable legislation on the lines of the proposal of the Consumer Council.

Mr. Evans

Will my hon. Friend treat this matter as one of great urgency? Is he aware that in Birmingham, as well as other parts of the country, representatives of encyclopaedia companies are knocking on doors and saying that they are from the education committee and that mothers, housewives and others are thinking that they are from the local authority's education committee whereas they are merely from the education committee of the publication concerned? Will he see that this sort of unscrupulous doorstep selling is stopped as soon as possible?

Mr. Darling

Yes, Sir. We are aware of the fact that certain encyclopaedia salesmen have adopted these tatctics. I would like to make it clear that this does not now apply to the Encyclopaedia Britannica company, which has taken steps—which are already in operation and of which we approve—and has dropped the sales methods about which my hon. Friend complains. I think that we can take action without legislation, by persuasion and other means, to try to get these practices stopped.