THE CONSUMER CREDIT ACT 1974: ITS SCOPE

Published date01 March 1977
Date01 March 1977
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1977.tb02416.x
AuthorK. E. Kindgren
THE
CONSUMER
CREDIT
ACT
1974:
ITS
SCOPE
INTRODUCTION
IN
September
1968
the then British Labour Government set up a
committee under the chairmanship of the late Lord Crowther to
review the existing law and practice governing the provision of
consumer credit and to make recommendations. Its report,
Con-
sumer Credit,
was made to a Conservative Government and pub-
lished
in
March
1971.’
It was not until September
1973
that specific
reforms of the law were proposed by the Government and these
were advanced
in
the Department of Trade and Industry’s White
Paper,
Reform of the
Law
on
Consumer Credit.2
A
Bill was intro-
duced in the House of Commons
on
November
1,1973,
and it was in
its Committee stage when the general election of February
28,
11974,
returned a Labour Government. The new Government
promptly revived the Bill, slightly modified to take into account
the deliberations of Standing Committee
D
on
the first Bill as
well as Labour’s preferences on a few relatively minor issues. This
second Bill was introduced in the House
of
Lords on March
28,
1974,
ultimately received the Royal Assent
on
July
31, 1974,
and
became the Consumer Credit
Act
1974.4
It would be difficult
to
overstate the significance of the Act in the
field
of
consumer protection. When fully operatives it will have
repealed seven Acts entirely and parts of many others;
232
sections
and
22
Schedules will have been discarded. It will be
the
Act regu-
lating all forms of provision of consumer credit and the licensing
of
consumer credit providers and those carrying
on
ancillary credit
businesses. Professor Goode does not exaggerate when he describes
the Act as
probably the most advanced and certainly the most
comprehensive code ever to be enacted in any country in the sphere
of
consumer credit.”
The Act enjoyed
a
remarkable degree of bipartisan scrutiny and
support. This followed from the fact that both parties had sup-
ported the Bill when in government and
in
opposition (whilst support
1
H.M.S.O. Cmnd.
4596.
In this article
Crowther
is used to refer both to the
Committee and to its Report.
2
H.M.S.O. Cmnd.
5427
(the “White Paper”). There had admittedly been a
debate on Crowther in the
House
of Lords in
1972
at the instigation of the
Baroness Lady Phillips: see Official Report, H.L.Deb., ser.
5,
cols.
928-977
(June
28, 1972)
(henceforward an abbreviated form of reference to the debates will be used).
3
Indeed Standing Committee
D” had concluded its consideration
of
the Bill with
its 14th session on February
5,
1974,
and was ready to report.
4
1974,
c.
39.
5
Only Pt.
I
and two substantive provisions
(ss. 154
and
155)
became operative
on
July
31,
1974.
The remaining provisions were and still are, at time of writing,
to be phased into operation over time with the making
of
the necessary and fairly
voluminous subordinate legislation.
6
R.
M. Goode,
Introduction
to
the Consumer Credit Act
1974 (1974),
Preface.
159

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