Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [Lords]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We want to ensure that the resources are distributed fairly across the country and that those areas which might have less capacity or expertise to access the funds do not lose out unfairly as a result, so we would certainly be keen to take on board those points in terms of the way the distribution mechanism operates. Finally, I wish to make the point that we have in the Bill introduced the provision that small financial institutions, particularly building societies, should be able to operate alternative arrangements where they play an important role in their local communities and want to be able to distribute dormant account money to local charities. These alternative arrangements will allow the reclaim fund resources to be returned to the bank or building society for distribution to local charities. We had originally proposed that in order to qualify for this alternative scheme an institution must have total assets of £7 billion or less. Amendment in the other place makes the option available to small banks and all building societies. In fact, the vast majority of building societies were covered by our arrangements. We have listened to the arguments for the inclusion of big building societies, but we do not believe that the expansion of the alternative scheme is desirable. We believe that the larger financial institutions serving wider communities across the country should take part in the main scheme to ensure that resources can be distributed fairly and strategically across the country to meet the priorities discussed in this House. Therefore, we will bring forward amendments in Committee to focus the alternative scheme on the ability of small institutions to support their local communities.