We are absolutely on side with the suggestion that there needs to be a uniform approach to the essentials of this scheme. That includes a national maximum interest rate. I suggest to the noble Lord, Lord Warner, that we do not need a national body running an all-singing, all-dancing, nationally mandated deferred payment scheme. We want to build on the good work already going on out there. The noble Lord made a fair point that only a minority of local authorities currently operate deferred payment schemes. Of those that do, many provide us with a very good basis on which to build and share knowledge with other local authorities. That can start now before the regulations are drawn up. We can and will start work with local authorities to ensure that they are gearing themselves up in the right way to approach this task.
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The noble Lord, Lord Warner, asked me about statutory safeguards around independent financial advice and where the Government are in our discussions with stakeholders. As he will recall, this is a point that we discussed at length when dealing with the provisions on information and advice—or, rather, he will not recall it, as I think he was unavoidably away at that time. I have, though, noted the strength of feeling on the issue that emerged from our debates, and I take further note of the noble Lord’s own views on this, which I shall reflect on between now and Report and will be happy to talk to him about.
The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, asked me about Clause 35 and the reason for the word “may”. We are consulting on the details of how this policy will work, as I have mentioned, and our intention is to make a set of regulations that will reflect the policy decided in response to the consultation. I do not anticipate that we will adopt a selective approach to the various provisions set out in Clause 35. Those provisions have been put there for a purpose because we think that they are important. I hope that, while I cannot anticipate the result of the consultation, I may reassure the noble Lord as far as I can that we do not anticipate omitting any of those provisions from the eventual regulations.