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Compensation Bill [HL]

Indeed, my Lords. As the noble Lord will remember, yesterday he and I met with Ivan Lewis, Treasury Minister with responsibility for the FSA. Mr Lewis gave a commitment to the noble Lord that he would look personally at the issues raised. Our contact with the FSA has been very positive. Whatever we finally decide, I am quite confident that it and Mr Lewis himself will play a significant role in helping us to get this right. If I were in a position to give a name, I would certainly do so. I hope I have given some confidence that we are on the road to determining which of these two options will suit best in the short and medium term. The noble Lord has played a huge part in my thinking about the consequences of future changes and how they might impact even on regulators who at this point do not feel that being able to think again is for them. I do not want to close off that opportunity. I accept my responsibility, through this Bill, to get the regulator up and running by October—even if it is in an interim form—in order that we can tackle a real problem for our consumers.