Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [Lords]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley (Kitty Ussher), the former Economic Secretary, for all her hard work in developing the Bill and supporting its progress, and welcome to the Treasury Bench my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley, South (Ian Pearson), the new Economic Secretary, who will be taking the Bill through Committee. The Bill implements the commitment in the Labour party's 2005 manifesto to channel unclaimed financial assets back into the community. It has already been through the other place, where it received broad cross-party support as well as extensive debate, and I hope that we will see that cross-party support continued here. The purpose of the Bill is to enable what are effectively lost assets to be put to use in supporting the community while ensuring that, should their former owners discover them again, they can still get them back. We begin our deliberations in this place in a rather different financial climate from that in which we started, and I am sure that the changing circumstances will form part of our deliberations here and in Committee. The hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Mr. Maples) has already raised this matter with the Chancellor today, in the course of the discussions on the statement. It is important to recognise that the Bill is not about tackling today's market conditions; it is about the future, and about laying the foundations for a scheme that will be in place in mid-2009 at the earliest. The scheme will be voluntary, and it has been brought forward with the full support of the industry.