§ Mr. Win GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the trend of consumer complaints in the last 10 years. [140940]
§ Dr. HowellsLocal authority trading standards departments provide the Office of Fair Trading with regular returns detailing the number of consumer complaints that they have received. The Director General of Fair Trading publishes these in his annual report to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, copies of which are placed in the Library of the House. The report does not deal with complaints made to other regulatory bodies, such as the utilities regulators, Government Departments, representative bodies such as the National Consumer Council and the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, and trade associations.
For the year ending 30 September 1989, the number of consumer complaints reported by local authorities to the OFT was 583,760. By the year ending 30 September 1999, this had risen to 897.704.