Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

[EXC]

14 October 2010 Last updated at 09:43 Share this page

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Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

Some complaints can get very frustrating for consumers to deal with
Consumer complaints ranging from rogue traders to energy companies will be taken by a charity in the future, the BBC has learned.
As part of the axe falling on quangos, the government-backed Consumer Direct helpline will be taken over by the Citizens Advice Bureau.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is being stripped of its consumer protection role.
The OFT is to be merged with the Competition Commission.
Continue reading the main story Related stories

• Hundreds of quangos to learn fate
• Q&A: What is a quango?

Local trading standards officers will deal with the OFT's previous high-profile work in taking on major consumer issues.
BBC business editor Robert Peston said: "The big question is whether local trading standards offices will have the resources or expertise to really challenge the behaviour of giant businesses."
Changes Up to 180 organisations will be abolished in the government's cull of quangos.
This will impact directly on consumers who will see a dilution of some of the groups that offer support and advice.
Continue reading the main story “Start Quote

It's a huge reform agenda and one which seems in tune with David Cameron's localism and Big Society visions. Does it make sense?”

End Quote Robert Peston Business editor, BBC News

• Read Robert's blog

They include:

• The Consumer Direct helpline - which offers immediate advice and forwards serious cases on to trading standards officers - will be overseen by Citizens Advice rather than the OFT
• High-profile consumer right challenges will devolve to local trading standards officers from the OFT
• Granting of licences to offer credit to consumers will go to the new Consumer Protection and Markets Authority
• Consumer Focus - the government's official consumer watchdog is expected to be scrapped

Both Consumer Focus and Consumer Direct were set up by the previous Labour administration.
Trading standards officers campaigned for the Consumer Direct helpline to ease the pressure on dealing with frontline complaints from consumers - about things such as second-hand car sales - to concentrate on investigating and prosecuting rogue traders.

[Amethyst]

Re: Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

Cabinet office website is down.

192 to go ?

Guardian: The quango statement has just arrived. It says that 192 quangos will be abolished. Another 289 will be reformed.

[EXC]

Re: Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

Come again?



Robert Peston's blog:

« Previous | Main
Championing the consumer goes local

Robert Peston | 08:53 UK time, Thursday, 14 October 2010

I disclosed here last month that the Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission would be merging to form a super competition regulator.
That will be confirmed later this morning.
And what will also be disclosed is that most of the OFT's consumer protection functions will be stripped out - in a way that the coalition government hopes will be seen as a manifestation of its determination to devolve power to local bodies.
So the Citizens Advice Bureau will be given the OFT consumer complaints line, Consumer Direct.
And the CAB will take on the OFT's role in championing consumers in their relations with the big energy and telecoms companies.
But when it comes to the OFT's highest profile work, such as challenging the way the banks charge for unauthorised overdrafts or the way that low cost airlines show their prices, that will devolve to local Trading Standards offices.
As for the OFT's consumer credit responsibilities, they'll go to the new Consumer Protection and Markets Authority that is being created from the break up of the Financial Services Authority.
It's a huge reform agenda and one which seems in tune with David Cameron's localism and Big Society visions. Does it make sense?
Well I'm not sure the consumer lobby groups, such as Which, or the business lobby, including the CBI, will be overjoyed.
Because the big question is whether local trading standards offices will have the resources or expertise to really challenge the behaviour of giant businesses.
There's a risk of balkanisation, that sees tight restrictions imposed on smaller companies but fails to check the anti consumer activities of the biggest businesses.
Also, it's slightly odd that the CAB will be asked to fight for consumers in their battles over gas bills, but not in their struggles over bank charges - where the CAB has tons of expertise.
And it's not clear that the CAB is the best place for Consumer Direct - in that 20% of the complaints it receives result in enforcement action by trading standards and the OFT.
The Business Department will publish a consultation paper on all this. I would expect something of a backlash against the blueprint and I doubt all of it will go through.

[Amethyst]

Re: Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

Consumer Direct and OFT is on the list of Quangos lol. But I can't download the full list and info direct from the Cabinet Office. Was published at 10am I think.

Francis Maude will announce the full list to the House of Commons at 12:30 this afternoon


(In Sept they leaked 177 to be cut, the reality is 192) Consumer Watch are one - never heard of them ?

[Amethyst]

Re: Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

Politics live blog – Thursday 14 October 2010 | Politics | guardian.co.uk
10.24am: Here's an extract from the written ministerial statement that Francis Maude has released this morning about the quango cuts.

This public expect ministers to take responsibility for what the governmentdoes, and not leave this to people or bodies that are unelected. In the past, too many public bodies have been established without proper thought, and allowed to remain when their mission has long been accomplished. This has meant that elected politicians have been able to avoid making difficult and tough decisions. This is a direct challenge to accountability and is contrary to openness and transparency in public services that this Government seeks to achieve.
So the government's presumption is that state activity, if needed at all, should be undertaken by bodies that are democratically accountable at either national or local level. A body should only exist as a Quango if it meets one of three tests, to which my review has subjected all existing public bodies. These tests are:
Does it perform a technical function?
Do its activities require political impartiality?
Does it need to act independently to establish facts?

This is a work in progress. A number of changes have already been announced. A number of bodies remain under consideration, with reviews still underway. All remaining public bodies will be subject to a rigorous triennial review to ensure that the previous pattern of public bodies often outliving the purpose for which they were established is not repeated.

10.10am: Here are more details from Francis Maude's announcement.
• 192 quangos will be scrapped.

Their functions will either be brought back into Government, devolved to local government, moved out of Government or abolished altogether. Examples include:
* Devolving responsibility for the work of Development Corporations to local government;
* Bringing organisations under more direct Ministerial control, such as the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, Renewable Fuels Agency and, as previously announced, the Appointments Commission; and
* Enabling organisations, such as the Design Council and the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), to become charities.

• 118 quangos will be merged, leaving 57. Another 171 will be "substantially reformed".

Examples include:
* Strengthening the competition regime by forming a single competition and market authority; and
* Substantially reforming organisations such as the Environment Agency and the Homes and Communities Agency working with them to streamline their work.

• 40 quangos still have their fate "under consideration".
• 380 quangos are being retained.
• In total, the Cabinet Office has considered 901 quangos. Some 648 of them will remain after the reforms.
• A public bodies bill will be introduced to implement some of the changes.
• New measures will be introduced to increase the accountability of quangos that remain. These will include new triennial reviews.
The full list of quangos affected is on the Cabinet Office website, but it seems to be crashing. We've got it, and we will be posting it on our website soon.

[Amethyst]

Re: Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

The list leaked in august is http://www.google.com/url?url=http:/...1HSVPg&cad=rja anyway for now....

[Amethyst]

Re: Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

Full List attached

[Amethyst]

Re: Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

BIS
Office of Fair Trading
Merge - Government will consult in the New Year on a merger of OFT's competition functions with the Competition Commission and transfer of consumer and enforcement functions

BIS
Consumer Focus
No longer an NDPB - Government will consider the outcome of ongoing sectoral reviews and consult early next year on proposals to abolish Consumer Focus and transfer its function to Citizens Advice

Defra
Consumer Council for Water
Under consideration - Decision to be taken as part of OFWAT review launched on 26 August. Outcome of the review will be set out in the Water White Paper, due for publication in June 2011

The Office for Tenants and Social Landlords (also known as Tenant Services Authority)
No longer an NDPB - Abolish body. Regulatory functions passed to Homes and Communities Agency. Independent economic regulation safeguarded. Consumer regulation slimmed down

Department of Work and Pensions(DWP)
Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission
No longer an NDPB - Will become an executive agency of DWP who will have responsibility for its functions

Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service)
Retain - Retain on grounds of performing a function which requires impartiality

[Amethyst]

Re: Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

Info from BIS BIS-Partner-bodies-streamlined | News speeches | BIS

Changes to the Department’s partner organisations involve:

• 19 bodies will no longer be NDPBs
• 6 bodies will be merged
• 2 bodies will no longer be Public Corporations
• 21 bodies are being retained, and
• 9 bodies are being considered further.

Details of BIS partner bodies (PDF, 54 Kb)
Changes include:

• The Competition Commission (CC) and the competition functions of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) merged to form a single competition and markets authority.
• The Design Council and NESTA's innovative work will continue and be enhanced by seeking to change their status to private sector charities.
• POSTCOMM will be merged with OFCOM to strengthen communication regulation.
• The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) will retain its current independent status but no longer receive Government funding.

BIS press notice
Cabinet Office announcement

Reform of competition and consumer bodies

Included in the announcement today are proposals to strengthen the competition regime, by bringing together the Competition Commission (CC) and the competition functions of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to form a single competition and market authority.
This new body would be responsible for merger regulation, market investigations, cartel and antitrust cases, as well as a number of functions with respect to the regulated utilities.
The Government has also carried out a review of the landscape of consumer protection bodies, and will publish a consultation early next year with proposals to streamline and transfer the functions of Consumer Focus, and other consumer bodies, to the Citizens Advice service. Most consumer enforcement will pass to local authority trading standards.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said:

"Consumers are represented by a bewildering array of public, private and voluntary bodies, which often duplicate efforts to inform, educate and advise consumers of their rights. Our aim is to create a simpler structure with a single competition authority and a stronger role for front-line consumer services."
BIS press notice

[Amethyst]

Re: Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

Player
on now

[Tools]

Re: Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

Consumer Direct helpline to be run by Citizens Advice

No need for the rest of the story, I think the headline and the picture sums up what most people feel in response to this decision.