Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support the amendment most ably moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, and supported by the right reverend Prelate. Picking up the points just made by the noble Lord, obviously some costs will be entailed in maintaining a register, but I submit that they are surely worth bearing when a scheme short of a register, such as is offered by banks and building societies at the moment, is not fit for purpose and is ill adapted to enabling beneficiaries to be reunited with assets bequeathed to them. The noble Lord spoke about residuary bequests. If one knows anything about legacies left to charities, one knows that residuary bequests are of great importance. They are the preponderance of bequests; only a comparatively small number of specific legacies are left. It is therefore very important for charities to be able to access residuary bequests if they are to benefit from legacies left to them. Finally, the noble Lord referred to charities with large headquarters in London that carry on campaigning work with government. It is not necessary to reply to that. Anyone who knows about the large amount of work, across a broad range of activities, that such charities carry out, and their valuable work in making representations to government on behalf of the groups they represent, will realise the necessity for maintaining premises and employing substantial numbers of staff. I will not dwell on that point. I declare my interest as chairman of one such large society, the Royal National Institute of Blind People. Turning to the amendments of the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, I will not range over the whole course of the subject matter that she addressed. I underline the point I just made about the respects in which the current scheme offered by the banks and building societies is not fit for purpose in addressing the need for a register that charities and individuals benefiting from legacies can access. The banks and building societies have launched a new online tracing scheme. This obviously represents a step in the right direction. However, there are still key gaps in the scheme, which mean that it does not amount to a register. The charities coalition, as we have heard, therefore believes that it is vital to maximise the opportunity over the longer term for the industry to get the scheme right. The amendments tabled by my noble friend provide a framework within which that can be done. The new online tracing scheme is problematic in at least six ways. First, it is far less straightforward to look for lost bank accounts than it is to search across building society accounts and the National Savings and Investments database. Secondly, it requires some knowledge of which institution the account is held in. Thirdly, it covers only dormant bank and building society accounts. Fourthly, it does not enable people to search across a broad range of banking institutions. Fifthly, it is not clear whether the scheme incorporates different types of bank accounts; for example, internet bank accounts. Sixthly, it is not clear what records are included, or how far back records go. At the moment there is no requirement for individual institutions to take part and members of the public are currently unable to search across a range of banks if they are not sure which institution is holding a lost asset. That is why the charities coalition is calling for the creation of a register of all unclaimed assets, which would ensure that beneficiaries—whether individuals or organisations such as charities—were reunited with assets owed to them from deceased people’s estates. To reunite assets and beneficiaries, members of the public and charities must be able to search a database with minimal information in the first instance—full name, last known address and, perhaps, date of birth, all of which are already publicly available. In the case of deceased people’s estates, information about the financial institution in which the asset is held is unlikely to be known, hence the difficulty in fully utilising the new industry tracing scheme, which requires an approach to an individual bank. Furthermore, currently there is no requirement for financial institutions to make data available to any schemes. For the Unclaimed Assets Charity Coalition, the key to establishing a successful system is to ensure full participation by all financial institutions. As currently drafted, the Bill will not compel financial institutions to make data more easily accessible to the general public. Banks and building societies will simply be asked to publicise the fact that they hold unclaimed assets. That will be of no help to people who do not know which institution is holding a lost asset, and it will be of no help to charities trying to trace lost assets belonging to deceased people’s estates. Any register need not be maintained by the Government. It will, however, need to be created and maintained using stringent measures against fraud, as applied by, for example, the many unclaimed assets schemes operating in the United States. That means that no data beyond confirmation of a match between an institution holding an unclaimed asset and the details, which I mentioned earlier, as input by someone conducting a search would be released unless and until full proof of identity is produced to the institution holding the asset. This would be no less rigorous than any other proof of identity required to access an account. To sum up, although the banks and building societies are launching a new online tracing scheme, this is not the same as a register, which is what the charities coalition is calling for. There is no requirement for individual institutions to take part and members of the public will not be able to search across a range of banks if they are not sure which institution is holding a lost asset. That is why the charities coalition continues to ask for the creation of a register. As my noble friend has indicated, this is a moderate amendment. It does not call for the establishment of a register straight away. It gives the opportunity to see how the Bill will work as an Act until we get the first report of how it is working. It creates a reserve power for the Secretary of State to establish a register only if and when the report indicates that the scheme needs to be improved. I also ask noble Lords to support this valuable amendment.