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Compensation Bill [HL]

I could not agree more with the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, on transparency of cost being critical for the most vulnerable people who are approached in that way and who need to know precisely what they are letting themselves in for, if I may put it has bluntly as that. In some of our discussions later this afternoon, we will consider what should be in the Bill. It is important that we consider what should be in primary legislation, what should be in regulation, what should be in the rules and what should be in the code of practice. I am not at all against a discussion on what should be in a Bill, but I am not naturally a person who likes lists in the Bill. I am always worried that that gives weight to some issues but not to others that may deserve equal weight. I am keen that by the time the legislation is finished, people are absolutely certain that all those issues will be appropriately covered. That is clearly one of them. On timing, I said at Second Reading that we were looking to have everything done and dusted and the regulator ready, if we could, by the end of this year. I should like to do that more quickly if I possibly can. My personal ambition is to have everything ready by October. That is a personal ambition at this stage, but it is in recognition of the points made consistently by noble Lords about the need to move as swiftly as we possibly can. We plan, once the Bill leaves your Lordships’ House, to get it to another place as soon as we can and, as I said, to have the other processes moving alongside that so that, when we reach Royal Assent, we can move swiftly from then on. As I said, I shall say more about how we plan to develop the regulator’s role during future debates on the Bill in Committee and on Report. I hope that that gives the noble Lord some answer.