PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
CO-OPERATIVE PROTECTED SAVINGS AND PREPAYMENT REGULATION (30 January 2013)

That this House congratulates the Co-operative Group on being the first major supermarket to set up a protected savings stamps scheme in 2013; further congratulates the work of Louise McDaid, the Chairperson and Deborah Harvey the Secretary of the Farepak Victims Committee, now the Safeguard All Savings campaign, for the work they have done to campaign for justice for those affected by the Farepak collapse, better consumer protection for savers and the work they have undertaken with the Co-operative in developing the scheme; calls on Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Iceland and other retailers to follow the Co-operative's example and ensure consumer protection for their supermarket prepayment savings schemes; expresses concern that over six years on from the collapse of Farepak the vast majority of prepayment purchases remain unprotected by law including gift vouchers and credit notes; notes that £4 billion of gift vouchers are sold every year with no consumer protection and that 20 per cent of these remain unused; and further calls on the Government to bring forward proposals similar to those made by the 2009 Consumer Focus report Pay Now, Pay Later to regulate the whole of the prepayment sector in order to better protect consumer savings and payments.

Sponsored by:
Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour)