Consumer Rights Bill

Valerie intervened in second reading of the Consumer Rights Bill on Tuesday 28th January 2014.

Valerie Vaz asked:

“The Secretary of State has set out a lot of rights for consumers. What has been the impact of the lack of legal aid for those consumers to enforce those rights?”

The Secretary of State replied:

“Many of these issues are dealt with through small claims courts. I recognise that there is often a difficulty in enforcing claims in the small claims courts. I am not sure that legal aid is the central issue there. It is a question of ensuring that, when court remedies are imposed by the courts, they enforce them and there are proper fines on companies that do not yield at that point.”