§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what monitoring procedures are in place to ensure that there are adequate safeguards against personal business advisers recommending services solely to generate income for themselves. [8940]
§ Mr. PageIn order to become accredited, a business link must demonstrate to an independent assessor that the advice given by a personal business adviser and other advisers is both impartial and independent. To do this it must follow the guidelines on the independence of advice to customers set out in D47—D49 of the "Business Link Service Guide".
This includes, among others:
Outside their counselling and diagnostic role, PBAs and other advisers should have no personal interest in the supplier recommended or chosen.PBA targets should not include any that link a PBA's pay to performance measured by the volume of services taken up by customers, or to earning money for the business link or its partners. The same should also apply to others wholly or substantially involved in advising customers under the business link brand.