Legislative Reform

I want to be fair to the hon. Gentleman, but I am not quite sure that that is what he was driving at. I do not think he mentioned the banks. He was talking about HMRC. My hon. Friend the Member for Ochil and South Perthshire (Gordon Banks) expressed concern about what he saw as the local bit disappearing. Let me gently disagree with him. The local bit does not disappear through these changes. They allow flexibility and choice, according to the particular circumstances of the case. It is still open to liquidators to advertise in a local newspaper if they think that is the best way to identify unidentified creditors. The hon. Member for Henley (John Howell) asked me for a reassurance that there would be no act of discouragement. Of course there will not be an act of discouragement. All we are doing in the order is trying to take account of the effect of those adverts—as I said, only in one in 50 cases do they identify an unidentified creditor—and of the changes in the patterns of trade and communication since the rules were first established in the early part of the last century.