Financial Services Bill

Debate between Robert Buckland and Baroness Clark of Kilwinning

Monday 23rd April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Katy Clark]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on her work on this issue. She led an Adjournment debate about it shortly before Christmas to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Farepak’s collapse.

I, too, pay tribute to Deborah Harvey, who is the current secretary of the Farepak victims committee and who has done a tremendous amount of work on this issue. The Farepak victims committee is unusual in that it has continued, in an organised way, to bring people together on this issue over a long period. One problem is that the type of people who tend to be affected when such things happen are not organised. The work done by Louise McDaid, Jean McLardy, Deborah Harvey and many others has helped to keep the issue in the spotlight. It is important to look at the situation again today, because it is a disgrace that, five years on, it has not been brought to a conclusion and people still do not know for sure how much money they will get back.

One reason for the huge problems was that the Farepak victims were unsecured creditors. That meant that when the company went bust, the money that they had paid in was not protected, as it is secured creditors who get preference. We need to look at the model whereby people pay money in and effectively save up for goods that they have not received.

[Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)]

The hon. Lady is outlining the gap between the perceptions of those who were saving with Farepak, which was based in my constituency, and the reality of the regulatory framework. The gap was between people’s belief that they were saving into a pot that they would be able to reclaim from and the reality, which was that they were unsecured creditors. That must never be allowed to happen again. This is a chance for change so that we do not again see the abuse that we saw with Farepak .

[Katy Clark]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. He has shown that he has a full grasp of the issues. Many of those who saved through Farepak for Christmas 2006 believed that there was some form of protection for the money that they put in. They were of the opinion that they were being responsible by saving in that way. My view is that they were being responsible. We have a duty, as legislators, to put protections in statute to enable people to continue to save using such models. I think that those people had a reasonable expectation that there was regulation in place to protect the money that they put in. Many of them presumed that there was such regulation.

Five years ago, a voluntary body called the Christmas Prepayment Association was set up. However, many prepayment companies are not members of that organisation and there is no requirement for them to belong to it. Some of the biggest players in the market, such as Tesco and Asda, are not members. The association covers only Christmas schemes and not the wider prepayment sector.

I believe that the prepayment sector has not been regulated because, over time, different forms of prepayment have developed. Mechanisms have been put in place to provide protection for the earliest types of prepayment, such as those used in the travel industry. The Farepak case highlights important failings in the regulation of the prepayment industry. It has become clear that that lack of regulation extends not just to the Christmas hamper sector, but to a wide range of prepayment situations in which consumers pay in advance of receiving goods. I have already mentioned the holiday sector, in which the Association of British Travel Agents operates, and there are many other situations in which a customer pays for something by way of instalments.

That practice is usually undertaken by those of limited means, who are at risk of losing both their money and the product if the fund goes bust before they take delivery. Such a form of payment is used by such large organisations as Tesco and Asda, but also by small organisations in all our communities. Some people pay over a period for goods for a celebration, for example, perhaps paying a butcher instalments of £10 a week. We should provide a statutory framework so that such people get some type of preference if the organisation in question no longer exists.

One reason why it is important to have regulation is that it tends to be people from poorer communities who pay in advance by instalment. They are exactly the people who can least afford to lose out, and I do not believe that they should carry the risk when they choose that model of payment for goods. Many of them honestly assume that their money will be ring-fenced in some way.

We need to move to a model whereby moneys that are prepaid are effectively held in trust, and any organisation that can no longer deliver the goods because of a collapse gives those moneys priority. I therefore believe that it is appropriate that an organisation such as the Financial Policy Committee examines the issue. Prepayment exists in a wide range of scenarios, with people paying over a period in advance of receiving the goods. I therefore ask the Government to look sympathetically on new clause 12 and consider pursuing the course of action that it suggests.