§ Mr. McCrindleTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what representations he has received concerning cancellation provisions in contracts for timeshare developments; and what conclusions he has drawn;
(2) if he will introduce legislation to require timeshare developers to include cooling off periods in contracts and provide for independent arbitration in the event of disputes over timeshare contracts;
(3) if he will take powers to ban the use of incentive awards and sales presentations by timeshare developers.
§ Mr. ForthI receive a steady flow of complaints about timeshare problems mainly criticising the sales techniques used by some companies and the lack of a penalty-free cooling off period in many timeshare contracts. I announced on 2 June that I had asked the Director General of Fair Trading to carry out a review of the whole range of timeshare problems and to make appropriate recommendations in the early part of next year.