Consumer Credit Bill

I accept that, but let us imagine a situation in which the OFT has decided that it will not issue a licence to a particular credit institution because it believes that its previous lending was irresponsible. Presumably, the Minister is not saying that judicial review does not apply. I am sure that he would accept that if that credit institution was rather annoyed that the OFT had made that ruling and thought that it was unfair, it would surely be able to ask for a judicial review of the OFT. Perhaps I have misunderstood the 2002 Act. I hope that the Minister will reply to that point, because it is important. I want to come back to the point that I made when I intervened on the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford, because the issue of data sharing is particularly relevant to the point about irresponsible lending. If a credit institution were accused by the OFT of irresponsible lending, no doubt it would want to defend that to ensure that it got the licence. However, given that it will not have any powers—particularly in relation to people who had credit cards prior to the Data Protection Act 1998 coming into force—how will the OFT be able to say that it has been lending in an irresponsible manner? The credit institution will not have been able to have access to the other debts and borrowings of the applicant. To make sure that the new factor—irresponsible lending—works, can be implemented and makes sense, I hope that the Minister will move forward, with the Department for Constitutional Affairs, on the issues relating to data sharing. My hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk led that debate when we considered the Bill previously. He wanted to make sure that the Minister would push ahead on the matter, with his departmental colleagues. Lords amendment No. 3, which we will hopefully pass tonight, cries out for some real effort to go into that aspect because it is the missing piece of the jigsaw. If we pass legislation without that piece, there will be a concern that, although the provision is clearly a major improvement on what has gone before, it is still not quite there. Will the Minister give the House some detail about the future timetable for dealing with that issue?