Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill [Lords]

Debate between Adrian Bailey and David Heath

Tuesday 26th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Heath]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time.

Before I go any further, I wish to thank hon. Members on both sides of the House for their help in shaping this Bill, which is important to my Department and to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, where my hon. Friend the Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson) is Under-Secretary. It is something of a cliché on these occasions to say that the Bill has been improved by debate, but I genuinely feel that that has been the case with this Bill. It has also been helped by the sense of common purpose in the House for making progress on it.

[Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Minister give way?

[Mr Heath]

Of course I will. I was going to say something nice about the hon. Gentleman later, but he may prevent my doing that now—I hope not.

[Mr Bailey]

I hope that my remarks will not preclude that. In my capacity as Chair of the Select Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills I often need to berate Ministers for not doing what the Committee’s in-depth research has demonstrated to be necessary. On this occasion, although the Under-Secretary had concerns about some of our recommendations, on reflection she pretty much adopted whatever the Committee said was appropriate. Just as I berate Ministers on occasion, I want publicly to thank the Under-Secretary for her flexibility and reasonableness.

Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill [Lords]

Debate between Adrian Bailey and David Heath

Monday 19th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Heath]

I was about to move on to that, and it is a great shame that the hon. Gentleman took up some of the time I was going to devote to it.

[Mr Bailey]

rose—

[Mr Heath]

No, I will not give way.

I want to talk very briefly about the voluntary code in the milk supply chain, which I think is an important development. It would not be policed directly by the adjudicator, and I do not want to give the impression that it would.

Let us talk about sanctions. This is clearly a serious conversation we need to have in Committee and on Report. My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary set out the Government’s position on naming and shaming. I do not entirely agree with the hon. Member for Ogmore, because I think that naming and shaming played a significant part in events over the summer relating to the dairy industry. I think that several of the large retailers were directly shamed by consumers into changing their tune about their intended reductions in the price of milk.

However, I accept that many Members have indicated that they would prefer to see fines from the start. There are arguments about why that should not be the case, including the fact that it would introduce a new legal process of appeal that would not be there if it was not introduced ab initio. I want to make it absolutely plain that only one thing has to be done by order, which is for the Secretary of State to bring in a tariff system on the advice of the adjudicator, so it is not a separate process for each infringement.

[Mr Bailey]

rose—

[Mr Heath]

I am sorry, but I really cannot give way at 9.58 pm.

Let us discuss what the effective sanctions are and make sure that we have got them right. The Government believe that we have got it right at the moment, but of course we will listen to what every Member has to say on the issue and ensure that we have legislation that is fit for purpose.

In closing, I think that we have had a very important debate. It means that we can go forward, perhaps not as heroes, as the hon. Member for Ogmore suggested, or as characters from grocery folklore, as the hon. Member for Ynys Môn said, but with something that will contribute to the well-being of our farming and retail industries. I believe that is right and commend the Bill to the House.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill accordingly read a Second time.