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Building Societies (Funding) and Mutual Societies (Transfers) Bill

My hon. Friend has been in Parliament much longer than I have and knows all the tricks of the trade that Governments can use. Something that sounds reassuring at a superficial level may not be so in reality. I am grateful to him for reminding me of the dangers that he has outlined. I would like the Minister to address another aspect of amendment No. 3. When we discussed that before, the then Economic Secretary to the Treasury, now Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, said that the mutual insurers had to be left out of the Bill because of the possibility of contravening EU law. He said:"““We have considered whether the Bill could be extended to cover companies limited by guarantee that are also insurers, but because insurance is regulated on a Europe-wide basis, we would have to allow the same procedures to apply where the transfer is to a subsidiary of the body corporate in another member state which is similar to a company limited by a guarantee…For that reason, and despite our efforts, we were not able to include mutual insurers in””—[Official Report, 27 April 2007; Vol. 459, c. 1156.]" the new clause in Committee. Given that that was turned on its head when Lord Evans said that the amendment"““is wide enough to encompass mutual insurers and, by permitting transfers under the new provisions to a mutual society established in any EEA state, it ensures that there will be no breach of EC law””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 10 July 2007; Vol. 693, c. 1356.]," it would be helpful for the Minister to explain how we have gone from the stage of something being specifically ruled out, because it would breach EU law, to the stage that we are at now, where something is going to be incorporated to ensure that it complies with EU law. That strikes me as a sharp turnaround in a short space of time. What assurances can she give that the legal opinion on which the amendment is based will not be subject to challenge and will be watertight for the future? I am not a lawyer, and my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch knows much more about such things that I do, but if we can have a turnaround in a legal opinion in such a short time, I am not convinced that there cannot be a further turnaround in future. We have not discussed amendments Nos. 4 and 5 very much, but it seems that they are necessary to comply with EU law. Perhaps the Minister can clarify that. Without them, a mutual in another EEA state would have to establish a UK company subsidiary to benefit from the changes, which might place it at a disadvantage. The changes would ensure that UK and EEA mutual societies were treated equally. The amendments' purpose is not to benefit UK mutual societies in particular, but to benefit mutual societies in other EEA member states.