Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007

The National Consumer Council and territorial committees

1Establishment of the National Consumer Council and its territorial committees

(1)There is to be a body corporate called the National Consumer Council or, in Welsh, Cyngor Defnyddwyr Cenedlaethol (“the Council”).

(2)The Council must establish and maintain—

(a)a committee for Scotland to be known as the Scottish Consumer Council;

(b)a committee for Wales to be known as the Welsh Consumer Council or, in Welsh, Cyngor Defnyddwyr Cymru;

(c)a committee for Northern Ireland to be known as the Northern Ireland Postal Services Committee.

(3)In this Part references to a “territorial committee” are to a committee established under subsection (2).

(4)Schedule 1 is about the Council and its territorial committees.

2The territorial committees

(1)The territorial committees may exercise, on behalf of the Council, the following functions—

(a)in the case of the Scottish Consumer Council, the Council’s functions under sections 8 to 17, 19 and 21 to 26, so far as they are exercisable in relation to Scotland;

(b)in the case of the Welsh Consumer Council, the Council’s functions under those sections, so far as they are exercisable in relation to Wales;

(c)in the case of the Northern Ireland Postal Services Committee—

(i)the Council’s functions under sections 8 to 12, 15 to 17, 19, 21 and 23 to 26 so far as they are exercisable in relation to Northern Ireland, and

(ii)the Council’s functions under section 22 so far as they are exercisable in relation to consumer matters which relate to relevant postal services in relation to Northern Ireland.

(2)For the purpose of facilitating or improving co-ordination in relation to the carrying out of its functions, the Council may from time to time—

(a)impose restrictions or conditions on the exercise by a territorial committee of a function by virtue of subsection (1);

(b)give a territorial committee general or specific directions relating to the exercise of a function by virtue of that subsection.

(3)Nothing in subsection (1) prevents the Council from exercising any of its functions referred to in that subsection.

(4)A territorial committee also has the following purposes—

(a)the provision of advice and information to the Council about consumer matters affecting the area for which the committee is established,

(b)the provision of advice to the Council about the exercise of the Council’s functions in so far as they affect that area, and

(c)such other purposes as the Council may determine (including the exercise of any functions delegated to the committee under paragraph 23 of Schedule 1).