Building Societies (Funding) and Mutual Societies (Transfers) Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for making time to take this Committee stage and, more important, for having listened to the representations made in another place to see whether it was possible, given that we had already made considerable progress in helping the mutual movement, to go a little wider and look at the situation of mutuals in Europe. I would also like to place on record the appreciation of both Houses for Sir John Butterfill, who was primarily responsible for the Bill, although I should also mention the All-Party Building Societies and Financial Mutuals Group, which is one of the largest all-party groups in Parliament—I have the pleasure of being one of the founder members. We should not forget that 19 million people belong to mutuals throughout the United Kingdom. That is a huge number of people and it demonstrates the importance of the Bill. I have only two small questions. First, will the Minister, when he responds, confirm that the Treasury will consult on all secondary legislation that flows from the Bill? That is fundamental when there are some pretty open provisions on secondary legislation. My second question involves dipping into my memory bank—it is nice to see the noble Baroness here, with her experience of Europe. Hybridity is a sensitive area. I remember once, as Chairman of Ways and Means, being in charge of determining whether a Bill was a hybrid. Am I right in assuming that Amendment No. 1 has been included because we are dealing with EEA mutuals? If the Minister is not able to answer me this evening, perhaps he would be kind enough to write to me and place a copy of the letter in the Library. I understand that there might have to be provision to remove any question of hybridity in relation to an EEA mutual society, because that opens the door in relation to a UK society. Otherwise, we will be in a situation where others may cite this Bill as opening a Pandora’s box in relation to hybridity. I accept that this is rather a technical area and it may be specific to mutuals, but it relates to an important part of parliamentary procedure. Having said that, I greatly welcome the amendments. This is possibly one of the most dynamic things to have happened in the financial services world, because we are opening up the possibility of linkage between financial mutuals in the UK and their sister bodies throughout the whole of the EEA. That is greatly to be welcomed.