Consumer Council (Hansard, 26 March 1963)

§ Mr. Erroll

I am glad to be able to tell the House that the Baroness Elliot of Harwood has accepted my invitation to become the first Chairman of the Council.

I propose that the Council shall be an independent body as envisaged by the Committee on Consumer Protection under the Chairmanship of Mr. J. T. Molony, Q.C., and shall consist of twelve members, including the Chairman. I hope to announce the remaining members before long.

The Council will be financed by a grant-on-aid borne on the Board of Trade vote and provision has been made in the Estimates for 1963–64 for a grant of £60,000. The grant for following years, when the Council will be in full operation, will be reviewed.

The Government also accept the Molony Committee's closely related recommendation that a nation-wide advisory service should be available to the consumer through the medium of the Citizens' Advice Bureaux, which are already closely in touch with consumer problems. I also agree with the Committee's view that the Bureaux would greatly assist the Consumer Council by analysing complaints from individual consumers, so as to enable the Council to identify significant causes of consumer difficulty. I have accordingly expressed to the National Committee of Citizens' Advice Bureaux my hope that they and the individual Citizens' Advice Bureaux will feel able to extend their consumer advisory work in the way envisaged by 139W the Molony Committee. The National Committee have told me that they are ready to undertake this task. To assist them in doing so, provision has been made in the Estimates for 1963–64 for a grant of £27,000 to the National Council of Social Service.

I have aken account of these arrangements in drawing up the terms of reference of the Consumer Council, which are as follows:

"1. Subject to the exceptions hereinafter mentioned, the functions of the Council are:

(a) to inform itself about the consumer's problems and about matters affecting his interests;
(b) to consider, after consultation where necessary with other affected interests, the action to be taken to deal with such problems, or to further or safeguard such interests and to promote that action;
(c) to provide advice and guidance for the consumer, in particular through the Citizens' Advice Bureaux and other appropriate organisations and by its own publications;
(d) to publish an annual report.

2. The following are excluded from the Council's functions, namely:

(a) the preparation or publication of comparative test reports;
(b) the taking up of complaints on behalf of individual consumers; and
(c) law enforcement action.

3. In exercising its functions, the Council shall have regard to the views expressed thereon in the Final Report of the Committee on Consumer Protection."

These terms of reference will enable the Council to perform all the functions listed in paragraph 199 on page 314 of the Final Report of the Committee on Consumer Protection.