Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, and the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, for their comments. The Minister does not have the same sight on this as I have. Clause 5(4) says: "““The Treasury may give a direction … requiring it””." If that is not the Treasury saying to this private company, ““You shall do something””, what is? That is so clear. All Amendment No. 10 says is that these people who are required to do things had better be required to send some accounts. The Treasury should then lay those accounts before Parliament and tell us about the directions. That is simple and straightforward; I see no great problem in that. The dilemma for the Minister is his concern that this is a sort of private affair. The main thing is that this is primarily about something that is being done for the public good. Lots of people want to see the right thing being done for the public good. It therefore seems to me that this very simple matter should be acceptable. The Minister has an idea that Amendment No. 17 is heavy handed. Perhaps he needs a bit of help. There is all this talk of this being voluntary, but only one volunteer decides how the Big Lottery Fund shall spend the money. There has been tremendous concern about the disposition of the money. Many people could think of all sorts of bright ideas for the use of this money, but by and large people have thought, ““Fair enough: youth, yes—bearing in mind where the money is coming from; financial inclusion, yes; social investment bank, not quite certain but we’ll give it a go””. However, this one volunteer will say, ““£300 million for that, £50 million for that, and £50 million for that””. Surely the people who have had such great concern about the disposition of these resources and who represent people in various places should have a say in this, rather than it being at the whim of one Minister at the particular moment when the penny drops, the money is available and Parliament is not involved. It beggars belief that that is the position. I therefore wish to test the opinion of the House. On Question, Whether the said amendment (No. 10) shall be agreed to? Their Lordships divided: Contents, 193; Not-Contents, 133. Schedule 1 [Provision to be made in articles of association of reclaim fund]: [Amendment No. 11 not moved.] Clause 10 [““Dormant””]: [Amendment No. 11A not moved.]