Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill [Lords]

Jo Swinson Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Jo Swinson)]

I beg to move, That this House agrees with Lords amendment 14A.

Hon. Members may be surprised to see the return of a Bill to which we bade such a fond farewell not very long ago. It returns to the House for two reasons. First, we had such an enjoyable time during its passage through the Commons that we could not resist one further go. The second and by far the most important reason we tabled this amendment in the other place was a recommendation from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee in its sixteenth report of the Session.

As hon. Members will recall from our discussions, the adjudicator must consult on her guidance. This will allow her to make a recommendation to the Secretary of State about the maximum level of the fine or the basis for determining that amount. The Secretary of State will then need to lay an order before Parliament setting this maximum level or the method for determining it. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has recommended that such an order be subject to an affirmative resolution rather than the negative procedure provided for in the Bill when it left the Commons.

There are already safeguards around the use of the power. It can be exercised only after a recommendation from the independent adjudicator, based on her consultation, and the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee recognised that this would usefully serve to inform the exercise of the power by the Secretary of State. However, the Committee advised that as the upper limit of the penalty is not on the face of the Bill, the power to fix those limits should be subject to a significant level of parliamentary scrutiny. This is in line with its recommendations in other cases in which the maximum penalty is not stated on the face of the Bill.

We think that the Committee’s comments are reasonable and we are happy to heed the voice of Parliament on this issue. Our amendment provides only that the order will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure, ensuring that Parliament will be able to scrutinise and positively approve the order. I trust that this increased level of scrutiny will be to the satisfaction of hon. Members, and I urge them to support this minor amendment to what I think we all agree is an excellent Bill.

[Ian Murray (Edinburgh South) (Lab)]

It is strange that an hour has been allocated for this debate when it is obvious that it will take only a few moments. Given that the Agricultural Wages Board has been abolished by the unelected House of Lords and this House was not able to have a debate on that, the timetable today is a bit disappointing.

For my sins, I have often said in Delegated Legislation Committees in the past few weeks that I agree with the Minister, and this is another demonstration of the fact that when the Government do the right thing, we will agree with them. In this case, the Minister is certainly doing the right thing.

It is worth returning to the introduction of this Bill. It was a fairly ordinary Bill to start with, but it was strengthened substantially in the other place with the addition that trade associations and third parties could seek redress from the adjudicator. Importantly, on Second Reading in this House, we had a robust debate on whether fines should be included in the Bill. We disagreed on that point, and the Minister vehemently and robustly defended their omission. We are delighted that provisions on fines were added in Committee, which made the Bill all the better.

The amendment we are considering is significant because it shows the power of this House. The Select Committee has had a pre-appointment hearing for the adjudicator, and we congratulate her on her appointment. She will be a very good adjudicator and we look forward to her getting stuck into some of the important work that has to be done on this issue. We have also had a lot of cross-party consensus on the Bill on the Floor of the House and in Committee. It is a testament to the power of the Select Committees and the Committee system—not to mention the other place—that we started with a fairly weak Bill, but it will leave this House today much stronger.

Many people deserve credit for that improvement. As well as the Minister, they include the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George) who is in his place, my hon. Friend the Member for Ynys Môn (Albert Owen) who I do not see in his place, and my hon. Friend the Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies), who was my wing person in Committee.

We do not disagree with the Lords and will be agreeing with the Minister in this particular case, but I will just make this point. We had arguments in Committee about ensuring that the Select Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills and the Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in particular had time to look at these issues, and the Minister defended robustly the other Committees of this House. Now that provisions on fines are in the Bill, and the Secretary of State will be putting forward an order to determine their amount, it is right that that statutory instrument should be before the House for affirmative resolution. We can then debate it to ensure that it is in the interests not just of the suppliers covered by the groceries code adjudicator, but businesses and supermarkets too.

--- Later in debate ---

I am hopeful that the fact that the groceries code adjudicator is in place will stop most of the abuses that have been committed. If that is what having the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill achieves, that is far better than fining lots of companies. We want to see bad practice ruled out and good practice put in its place. I am hopeful that that is exactly what the Bill will do. I therefore very much welcome the Lords amendment, but I also welcome the fact that the Bill has made such quick progress through the Lords to come back here to the Commons. I therefore hope we can get it on the statute book as quickly as possible.

[Jo Swinson]

I do not intend to detain the House for long, but I want to respond to the points raised in this debate.

The right hon. Member for South East Cambridgeshire (Sir James Paice) raised a perfectly fair point about the fines structure and whether it should take into account the size of the business being fined, in order to drive its behaviour. Let me reassure him that the adjudicator will have to undertake a consultation on her guidance on the maximum. As my hon. Friends who served on the Committee have said, we discussed that in depth in Committee, because she will want to spend a little time ensuring that she gets that right. I am sure that hon. Members will be interested in engaging with that consultation and giving their views on it.

My hon. Friend the Member for St Ives (Andrew George) talked about when the adjudicator begins her role. I am pleased to say that, as adjudicator-designate, she is currently working one day a week, enabling her to build some of the stakeholder relations that will be so crucial. Once the Bill is commenced and becomes an Act, she will have her full suite of powers and be working three days a week.

I thank the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Neil Parish) for his kind comments. Indeed, this is an appropriate point to thank a few Members for the work they have done to get us to this position. They include my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for St Ives, who has campaigned for this measure for over a decade, the hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Albert Owen), who built a lot of momentum on the issue through his private Member’s Bill, and the Opposition spokespeople, the hon. Members for Edinburgh South (Ian Murray) and for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies), who have also campaigned on the issue and who worked hard with the Government to help to improve the Bill. I also thank the Chair of the Select Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills, the hon. Member for West Bromwich West (Mr Bailey), and the Chair of the Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton (Miss McIntosh), along with the Chairs of the Bill Committee, the hon. Members for North Thanet (Sir Roger Gale) and for Arfon (Hywel Williams), as well as the members of the Committee, the Whips and the Parliamentary Private Secretaries.

Together, we have managed to create an adjudicator with the teeth to ensure that retailers treat their direct suppliers fairly and lawfully. That is a legacy of which we can be proud. I commend the Bill to the House.

Lords amendment 14A agreed to.