Banking (Special Provisions) Bill

I am very glad that the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, spoke before me as I wanted to take the opportunity to congratulate him and his colleagues on the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, not only on the quality of its report but the speed with which it produced its recommendations. The Government are testing the procedures of the House to the limit, and I admire the way in which the noble Lord and his colleagues put forward some very important points. So far as the concerns that the noble Lord has just expressed relate to other matters in the Bill, we will want to think carefully about what he has just said. However, when I first saw Clause 11, I found myself in complete agreement with the committee’s recommendation that this provision is inappropriate and should be removed from the Bill. Yet that committee gave a fallback position, with which the Government have now decided to proceed, and I very much welcome what the Minister has said. My only other comment is that in the tremendous haste of our procedures, Amendment No. 20, to which I understand that I should speak in this group, seeks to leave out a part of the Bill but refers to ““buiding”” rather than building societies. That is not an attempt to set up a whole new set of friendly societies, and I apologise for the error. Nevertheless, I will not be seeking to move Amendment No. 20, or to exclude Clause 11 in view of some very helpful comments by the Minister. On Question, amendment agreed to.