Banking (Special Provisions) Bill

moved Amendment No. 8: 8: After Clause 10, insert the following new Clause— ““Freedom of information Where an authorised deposit-taker is subject to an order made under section 3 or where the property, rights and liabilities of an authorised UK deposit-taker have been transferred to a body corporate under section 6, that deposit-taker or body corporate shall be deemed— (a) to be a publicly owned company for the purposes of section 3(1)(b); (b) to hold information on behalf of the Treasury for the purposes of section 3(2)(b); of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36).”” The noble Lord said: I also seek to declare my interest as having been the Cabinet Minister for Public Service who introduced the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information which now forms part of the Freedom of Information Act, which is what this amendment is all about. The Government should have nothing to fear from the truth, but they have chosen to shroud this whole issue in secrecy. The public does indeed have a right to know, but the Government’s response is to run precisely in the opposite direction. I hope that the purpose of this amendment is clear. The draft order that the Government intend to make under Clause 3 contained a small clause, very near the end, exempting a nationalised Northern Rock from being affected by the Freedom of Information Act 2000. I was greatly heartened, the Minister will be alarmed to hear, by his words earlier today. He said that the Government have nothing to hide. Admittedly, he was saying that in a different context, but I just want to hear him say that again in accepting this amendment. I am slightly pessimistic as the Minister touched on this subject in the course of his winding-up speech late yesterday evening, when I heard him give two reasons, as indeed did the Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s Questions in the other place. The first and most extraordinary argument, which I heard from both of them, is that the exemption is needed to protect commercially sensitive information about Northern Rock’s business plan. Of course it would be inappropriate to release just that sort of information. Surely, however, the Minister knows as well as I do that Section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act contains three subsections. Subsection (1) exempts, "““information if it constitutes a trade secret””." Subsection (2) exempts, "““information if its disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it)””." Subsection (3) provides that the obligation under Section 1(1)(a)—to confirm or deny that the requested information is held—does not arise. The Government therefore have nothing to fear so far as that is concerned. The Treasury always seeks to protect itself from private companies that attempt to use the Freedom of Information Act to gain competitive advantage. Why would Northern Rock be any different? The Minister also made the case that since no other bank is subject to the Act, Northern Rock should not be either. Well, to that argument I think the whole Chamber would immediately point out that no other bank is owned by the taxpayer and run by the Government. Northern Rock will be unusual among British banks in many ways. It is the very uniqueness of a nationalised Northern Rock that makes it imperative that there is sufficient transparency and accountability over its operations. Northern Rock will indeed be a special case; its directors’ salaries and bonuses will be paid out of taxpayers’ funds. That raises crucial questions of accountability. Is the Minister really saying that he does not believe that the public have, for example, a right to know how much they are paying a director to run their bank for them or how much he is being given in bonuses? It is bad enough that a serious regulatory failure has brought us to the pretty pass in which we now find ourselves. I am in an unusual position in that I agreed this morning with every word written by Peter Riddell in the Times. It was a bit of a shock over breakfast. He said: "““Parliament should [not] sign up to a blank cheque—on behalf of us all—granting ministers sweeping powers and providing little information about the possible taxpayer liability””." He was challenging this noble House to amend the Bill in, I believe, the way in which I am now suggesting. Had there been greater openness and more effective scrutiny in the first place, we would not be here today debating this extraordinary and anachronistic measure. Ministers and their proxies have sadly fallen asleep on the job once; they can hardly blame us for wanting robust systems in place to ensure that they do not do so again. I beg to move.