Major changes planned for consumer laws

The government has announced that it is looking to introduce a radical overhaul of the UK’s consumer laws.

The aim will be to simplify the complexity of the current legislation for consumers and to reduce the burden of compliance on businesses.

John Hutton, the Business Secretary, set out the government’s intentions in a speech he gave to a conference hosted by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the National Consumer Council.

The Minister said that the present consumer protection system, which has been developed over several decades, consists of upwards of 100 different pieces of legislation.

Mr Hutton continued: “But its complexity makes it hard to understand and costs business an estimated £1.25 billion every year. For example, we currently have specific rules for filling up coal bunkers and selling bird seed, imitation baby dummies and clothes with hood cords.

“It is clear that we must act to streamline these myriad rules to help consumers know and exercise their rights, cut red tape and target enforcement to weed out rogue traders.”

The government is inviting business and consumer groups to offer evidence that could inform the root and branch review of consumer law.

Specific areas where changes could be made include: replacing the 100-plus consumer laws with more flexible general rules to help reduce the burden on business; bringing together a small number of core consumer rights into a single Act of Parliament; introducing quicker and better ways of resolving disputes between businesses and consumers; and helping enforcement bodies target their resources on rogue traders who deliberately flout the law so that honest businesses do not carry unnecessary costs.