Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [Lords]

I very much appreciate the probing nature of the amendments tabled by the hon. Members for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) and for Fareham (Mr. Hoban). The legislation defines the basic architecture for the operation of the reclaim scheme, how it will transfer funds to the Big Lottery Fund and the general principles surrounding how those funds will be allocated. As has been noted, and as my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Tom Levitt) just mentioned, there is significant uncertainty about what funds will be transferred and when, so it is difficult to be precise in response to a number of the amendments, but I hope to be able to give sufficient clarification of some of the general themes in order to give the House the assurances that it naturally wants. We are all keen to get on with this and to see money going to the good causes that are specified in the Bill. It will be for the banks and the reclaim fund to decide the speed with which they transfer dormant assets in the first instance. It is likely that that will occur in a number of tranches, but although we do not know whether the original figure of £400 million to £500 million will be the actual figure, it will be built up over a relatively short period of time, and then we expect a steady funding to the tune of some tens of millions of pounds once the initial quantum of money has been transferred. This offers a number of opportunities to discuss issues such as that raised by the hon. Member for Fareham as to whether this provides an opportunity to have an up-front capitalisation for what the Bill terms a social investment wholesaler, and that is something that we would want to discuss. As has been made clear on a number of occasions, the funding priority overall in relation to dormant accounts has always been youth provision, and that remains the case.