2 Introduction
2. On 25 October 2004 the Department for Trade and
Industry ("the Department") laid the draft Order before
Parliament, together with an explanatory statement.
3. The proposal for this Regulatory Reform Order
as laid before Parliament on 26 May 2004 contained three connected
proposals to make substantive changes to the requirements on directory
publishers under the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 and
a number of related consequential amendments to other legislation.
4. Proposal A was to relax requirements imposed
by section 3 of the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971 (which
specifies the procedures to be complied with before a person,
usually a business, may be bound to pay for the publication of
an entry in a directory) where a contract is renewed or extended.
5. Proposal B was to allow agreement to the
publication of directory entries to be given over the telephone,
provided certain information has first been provided to the purchaser
and he pays for the entry by means of a debit or credit card.
This Proposal has now been dropped.
6. Proposal C was to repeal section 3A of
the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971, which gives the Secretary
of State power to make Regulations to govern the form and content
of invoices and other related documents in relation to the publication
of directory entries, and to specify a simplified set of provisions
which would, for the first time, be capable of being satisfied
by electronic documents.
7. The House has instructed us to examine the draft
Order against such of the criteria specified in Standing Order
No. 141(6) as are relevant. We are also required to consider
the extent to which the responsible Minister has had regard to
any resolution or report of the Committee or to any other representations
made during the period for Parliamentary consideration.[1]
Our discussion of matters arising from our examination is set
out below.
1 Standing Order No. 141(7) Back
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