Consumer Credit Bill

My Lords, I should apologise to your Lordships for putting my name down to speak on this subject, because, I am afraid, I have little expertise in it. One reason for that is that I have been fortunate enough in my life never to have had to get into debt, and I am appalled by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Worcester telling me that I probably will be unable to get into debt in the future. As a result, I am more than usually grateful to the Minister for the thorough and clear way that he explained what the Bill is about. I also congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Mawhinney, on his maiden speech, not least because it will enable him to help me complete my education when we examine the Bill in Committee and during subsequent stages. I suppose I should commiserate with the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Clark, because no one will be able to speak after her and tell her how well she did. I am sure that we will all do so in the bar afterwards, if she allows us to, but we all have to tell her how well she is going to speak before having what will undoubtedly be that proof. I have sat in this Chamber for 30-odd years and if I were putting together a small anthology of the best speeches from the Bishops’ Benches, I would say that they were always good—in both senses of the term: both right and almost always good. I seldom hear a bad speech from those Benches, but the number that plunge deeply into the ethical depths of the Christian religion are few, and I think that we heard such a speech today. I entirely agree with parts of that speech, and welcome it as something new for me to take on board. The reason for putting my name down today is to deal with the questions of caps and ceilings on interest rates. It is obviously a fraught issue. I have fortunately had the briefing from the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, as have some of your Lordships, which I take extremely seriously. I have not had the benefit of the opposing briefing on this point, but no doubt we will be able to look at it in Committee and thrash it out there. At the moment I am persuaded by NACAB. It argues a counter-intuitive case, because the obvious reaction of NACAB, myself, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Worcester, and probably of the rest of your Lordships, would be that caps must be a good thing to protect the poor and the consumer. Yet there is a forceful case for the disadvantages of interfering with the operation of the capitalist market. I do not spend my time coming to the defence of the capitalist system, nor does the Green Party. Here, however, there is a considerable case for saying ““let the market work””—there is always a good case for saying that. NACAB makes the case that rate ceilings restrict the range and diversity of credit products available, and also that some lenders withdraw from the credit market altogether when a rate ceiling is introduced. This is not the moment to dwell on that, because it will come up in Committee and, as is usually the case, we will probably argue the subject into the ground. I thought to warn your Lordships that a beginner in this field would be intervening. I am glad that I put my name down, or I would not have had the good fortune to listen to two or three outstanding speeches this evening.