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Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 30: 30: Clause 14, page 7, line 4, at end insert ““, with the consent of the Treasury”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, Amendment No. 30 inserts the ominous words, "““with the consent of the Treasury””." As your Lordships know, I was a Treasury Minister and am, in a sense, reverting to that part of my history. The subsection in question allows the LBRO, for instance, to acquire and dispose of property and to borrow and invest money, although it is not said what the LBRO would invest it in. There appears to be no control over what it does. If it borrows money, I am not sure whether that will have either an express or an implied government guarantee. Let us suppose that the LBRO acquired some office property, perhaps for its own use, with the aid of a mortgage or loan of some sort, and the value of the office block went down, so that it was unable to cover the loan and found itself in negative equity. I am sure that before long some people will find themselves in negative equity. We hope that they will not, but if they did, would the Government stand behind it? That is the question. If they do not, they will have to pay more to borrow the money, which is the way these things work. It is an important and relevant question. The sums of money will be small in terms of the Government’s accounts, but where will they appear in the Government’s accounts, if at all? Is it a completely freestanding body? These are the thoughts that lie behind my amendment to insert the requirement for the consent of the Treasury to significant financial transactions that are potentially permitted by this clause. I am interested that the Government have grouped my Amendment No. 30 with their Amendments Nos. 31 to 36, which all deal, in Clauses 15 and 16, with the giving of guidance by the Secretary of State and by Welsh Ministers respectively. It may be that the reason for grouping those amendments with my amendment on finance is that some of the guidance will be financial. I would not think that in the least improper. On the contrary, I would think it wise, particularly if there were going to be express or implied guarantees behind any money borrowed by the body in question. Amendments Nos. 33 and 36 take up points that I made in Committee about guidance. I am grateful to the Minister and his colleagues for agreeing to those amendments. I think there are some potentially important financial considerations with regard to Amendment No. 30. I beg to move.