Ms Angela Robinson:

In fact, there was quite a selection of respondents. Interestingly, both sets of respondents said they would like to see how the legislation works before any changes happen. That was one criterion. Some of the suppliers said the grey practices give them freedom, for example, to say they are prepared to have this arrangement and to pay for it if it means X, Y or Z. They wanted to retain that capacity.

The problem with unilaterally changing grey practices to black is the risk of undermining a freedom to contract for suppliers who want to enter into those arrangements and see whether they are happy to follow particular practices. When the directive was being debated and drafted at EU level, there was a consciousness of the need to allow for some flexibilities for suppliers to enter into such arrangements. That is why the decision was made not to make those particular practices black. However, as the Minister said, as this rolls out and as the regulations are enforced, we will be monitoring the situation to make sure that if there is widespread abuse of some of the grey practices, for instance, we can consider changing some of them to black.