| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
3 Mar 2004 : Column 981W—continued
Consumer Direct
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the (a) responsibilities and (b) planned expenditure of Consumer Direct for each year between 2003 and 2006. [157196]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is as follows:
(a) The responsibilities of Consumer Direct are: to provide consistent consumer advice by telephone, e-mail and online, thereby improving accessibility and meeting unmet demand estimated at 400,000 to 1.5 million calls per year; to improve the quality and coverage of information for Trading Standards through access to a central consumer complaints database; and to refer consumers who need additional help and support to the agencies best placed to assist them, including Trading Standards and Citizens Advice Bureaux.
The service will provide clear, practical advice for consumers who want to: sort out problems with suppliers of goods and services; know their rights as consumers; report scams and find out how to avoid them; receive advice on how to seek out reputable traders. The overriding aim is to empower consumers to resolve issues themselves. It will not provide product specific information or recommend individual organisations or service providers, nor will it intervene with a trader on a consumer's behalf.
Consumer Direct will begin operation in four Pathfinder nations/regions this summer (Scotland, Wales, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the South West Nationwide rollout (excluding Northern Ireland) will be completed by 2007.
(b) The planned expenditure of Consumer Direct is:
| £ million | |
|---|---|
| 2003–04 | 3 |
| 2004–05 | 11 |
| 2005–06 | 16 |
This expenditure may be subject to adjustment depending on the speed of roll out following implementation of the pathfinders.
3 Mar 2004 : Column 982W
Debt Collection Agencies
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what regulations exist for debt collection agencies regarding the amount of evidence that must be represented to them before they take up a claim. [155662]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) licence debt collection under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The OFT publishes guidance which is intended to set out the type of behaviour that falls within the category of unfair business practices and which call into question fitness to retain or be given a licence. The most recent guidance on debt collection was published in July 2003.
The guidance does not specify what evidence must be provided to a debt collection agency before they take up a claim but it does state that "sending demands for payment to an individual when it is uncertain that they are the debtor in question" and "ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled" are examples of unfair practices.
The guidance also makes it clear that the creditor remains responsible for third parties acting on their behalf and states that if they "choose to do business or continue to do business with third parties engaged in questionable fitness, then their own fitness will be called into question."
A copy of the guidance can be obtained from the Office of Fair Trading, Fleetbank House, 2–6 Salisbury Square, London EC4Y 8JX.
Department Branding
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much her Department spent on branding the Department between 1997–98 and 2003–04, broken down by (a) consultancy fees, (b) design and orders for new stationery, (c) website design and (d) other material featuring new logos. [154075]
Ms Hewitt: The Department does not centrally collect the information sought at the required level of detail and to provide it would entail disproportionate cost.
However, in 2003 as a result of the DTI Review and the subsequent need to reduce the number of competing brands and logos emanating from the Department all design work has been rationalised around the single and well-recognised DTI logo. £300,000 was spent on identity development and design guidelines—including the production of electronic stationery templates—with the purpose of saving future design costs for the Department. In addition £3,000 has been spent on new stationery, £5,000 on the website and £10,000 on new publicity materials. At all times current and future costs are being kept to a minimum—with the new design guidelines phased in as appropriate.
Dirigibles
Mr. Challen: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what research her Department has conducted on the potential (a) environmental and (b) economic benefits that could be derived from dirigibles in meeting future aviation needs. [157702]
3 Mar 2004 : Column 983W
Mr. McNulty: I have been asked to reply.
None. We do not envisage that dirigibles will play a significant role, if any, in meeting future air passenger transport needs.
Disadvantaged Communities
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps her Department is taking to encourage enterprise in disadvantaged communities. [157232]
Nigel Griffiths: Promoting more enterprise in disadvantaged communities and among groups of people currently under-represented in enterprise is one of the seven core strategies in the "Action Plan for Small Business" that we published in January 2004.
We have introduced, and are continuing to develop, a range of measures that includes:
- establishing the Phoenix Fund with a £145 million budget to improve the quality of business support and access to finance (funding a diverse range of initiatives that target specific geographic areas as well as women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, offenders and refugees);
- tasking Business Links to ensure that their services meet the needs of everyone in their areas interested in setting up and running their own business, irrespective of where they live;
- developing enterprise areas (the 15 per cent. most deprived wards) as a means of co-ordinating better policy development;
- support for the Inner City 100 Index which celebrates and role models the success of entrepreneurs from disadvantaged communities;
- specific tools to help community-based social enterprises develop their business skills;
- through the Phoenix Fund supporting the production of City Growth Strategies to help disadvantaged communities to put enterprise at the heart of regeneration.
E-commerce
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures her Department is taking to regulate the use of (a) symbols and (b) hallmarks by web-traders. [157212]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Government do not regulate directly the use of symbols and hallmarks by web-traders. Some web-traders use these devices to show that they subscribe to voluntary codes of practice for electronic commerce. The Government encourage the development of self-regulatory approaches to electronic commerce as a light touch alternative to legislation.
The Enterprise Act 2002 empowers the Office of Fair Trading to approve consumer codes of practice. These arrangements apply to consumer codes generally; they could cover codes for e-commerce, but are not specific to such codes or to symbols and hallmarks used by web-traders.
The Trade Marks Act 1994 protects signs that are used to indicate the origin of goods, and the courts have confirmed that this law applies equally to the use of such signs on the internet.
3 Mar 2004 : Column 984W
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many businesses have been accredited with the TrustUK e-hallmark in each year since its inception; and what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of TrustUK in increasing consumer confidence for on-line shopping. [157213]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The number of businesses accredited with the TrustUK e-hallmark in each year since its inception is:
| Number of web-traders | |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 3,765 |
| 2001 | 4,500 |
| 2002 | 5,285 |
| 2003 | (31)2,941 |
(31) Decrease in numbers follows the closure of the Consumers' Association's Which? WebTrader scheme in January 2003.
Figures provided by TrustUK.
TrustUK is a private sector organisation, which was originally set up with Government endorsement by the Alliance for Electronic Business and The Consumers' Association.
The Department has participated in two reviews of the TrustUK scheme. These reviews concluded that TrustUK should switch from regulatory work to promoting best practice more generally.
In 2003, DTI decided to withdraw the secretariat services it provides to the TrustUK approvals committee. This decision took into account the pressure on DTI resources, recent changes to the legislative framework including the Enterprise Act 2002 (which sets out a new approach to codes of practice), and the Department's belief that TrustUK, as a private sector self-regulatory organisation, should be able to operate independently.
The extent to which schemes like TrustUK are able to enhance consumer confidence depends on their ability to generate demand from business and profile among consumers.
Since its launch TrustUK has achieved much. Its criteria for e-commerce codes and its "code of codes" model have attracted positive interest and among other things have influenced the European Commission's thinking on an EU-wide code scheme for e-commerce.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |