Queen’s Speech

Baroness Crawley Excerpts

Monday 13th May 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Crawley]

My Lords, at this point in the evening, one wag in the House will say, “Surely everything has been said”, and his fellow wag will respond, “Ah, but not everyone has said it”. Despite that, I congratulate our new colleague, the noble Baroness, Lady Lane-Fox of Soho, on her maiden speech. I believe that we all feel that her contribution was a master class in riveting, resourceful and modern rhetoric. I look forward to her further interventions in your Lordships’ House.

Those colleagues who say that the gracious Speech was a bit thin this year may have a point because when I held it up to the light I could just see the letters “U-K-I-P” in the watermark. However, I was perhaps mistaken because most noble Lords will know that chasing UKIP on immigration or European policy will not turn our country’s economy around—and turn it around we must if 1 million unemployed young people are to enter work; if real wages, which have fallen rapidly since the election, are ever to recover; if the downward trajectory of bank lending to SMEs is to be reversed; and if growth is to be put back on track.

The only thing that seems to be growing in Britain today is the Prime Minister’s bewilderment at the antics of his own party on the issue of Europe. When asked by our leading polling organisations what their main concerns are, the British public continue to put the state of the economy first. Only one in 10 respondents, when asked, will put Europe as their main concern.

Therefore, the unseemly spectacle of Conservative MPs disagreeing with their own Queen’s Speech is indeed “strange” and “extraordinary”, to quote the Prime Minister today. However much we may all wish to see reform in the European Union and work towards it, the idea that we can just vote to leave Europe, putting at risk the British jobs that depend on our 40%-plus trade with the rest of the EU and putting at risk the inward investment that comes to us because we are part of the largest trading bloc in the world, is bizarre. The idea that we can just start over with the BRIC countries, which make up a fraction of the trade that we have with Europe, is indeed strange and extraordinary. The PM and I are at one on this, as I am sure he will be thrilled to know.

My specific interest in the gracious Speech, as president of the Trading Standards Institute, is the draft consumer rights Bill, which sets out to establish, as the speech says,

“a simple set of consumer rights to promote competitive markets and growth”.

So far, so good. The main elements of the Bill are to consolidate legislation in one place, bringing together eight separate pieces of legislation on consumer rights, and it will cover goods, services, digital content and unfair contract terms. Again, we would all welcome such a consolidation.

The main benefits of the Bill, being to give consumers greater confidence when buying, to introduce new protections for consumers and businesses, to update the law to take account, finally, of the purchases of digital content and to reduce burdens on business are all to be welcomed, as my noble friend Lady Hayter made clear. So where is the catch?

I hope that it is not the Government’s intention in this draft Bill to dilute the powers of the enforcement agencies—of trading standards officers in particular—to enter suspect premises unannounced. If that were the case, a vital aspect of consumer protection would be done away with and those Members of your Lordships’ House who champion consumer rights would oppose such a move strongly.

In this very difficult economic climate, it is more important than ever to boost markets by boosting consumer confidence, yet the regulatory services in local government, including trading standards, have lost a substantial number of key posts in the budget cuts of the past three years, and that policy continues. This has not left us, for instance, in a strong position to deal with the horsemeat scandal or whatever is next to come round the corner, and consumer confidence has taken a knock as a result. If the Government’s Bill were to damage further the enforcement role of the regulatory services, carried out in the interests of both consumers and businesses, then I am certain that many noble Lords would find that unacceptable.

The gracious Speech needs to be part of a toolbox for building growth and prosperity back into our country. I am not confident, with the exception of High Speed 2, as made clear by my noble friend Lord Faulkner of Worcester, that this gracious Speech will do that job.