Payday Loans: Advertisements

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Thursday 3rd April 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I do not have that figure. I will write to the noble Baroness.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)]

My Lords, is there not a case for looking at daytime advertising? On the one hand, you have ads that are encouraging people to take out loans at very high interest rates and on the other you have people being encouraged to go on gaming sites. With hindsight, was it not a great mistake for the previous Government to abandon the principle with respect to gambling and advertising that we should not take any measures that stimulate demand?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, it is a highly contentious issue and there are simply different views on it. As I said, personally I find those adverts distasteful, but that is not to say that I necessarily want to ban them all. One problem with a lot of adverts is that they encourage behaviour that might be thought to be irresponsible. There are a lot of ads on children’s TV for expensive toys and games that encourage children to say to their parents, “Can I have that toy and that game?”, which the parent cannot necessarily afford.