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Banking Bill

I was in meetings so I was not able to hear what Victor Blank said. He is obviously a serious figure in the business community and we will want to take due account of his views. We meet him on a regular basis, and Ministers and officials are well aware of his and his company's position on these issues. From what the hon. Lady says, his comments would not appear to refer directly to legislation appropriate under the long title of the Bill, but she raises an important point. The whole House has appreciated the action taken by the Government to recapitalise the banks to avoid the potential systemic risk to the financial services in this country. We need to continue to do all that we sensibly can in these difficult times, and that is one of the reasons why we have been considering whether further action is needed. I indicated the two areas in the pre-Budget report that suggested how the Bill could be strengthened in the other place, and I think that we have broad support from both sides of the House for those sensible measures. However, they will of course need to be thoroughly scrutinised in this House and in the other place. I am aware that there are some areas where Opposition Members may still have some concerns, but we went some way towards resolving those in Committee and in amendments on Report. I would like to take this opportunity to provide an update on progress in some of those areas. As hon. Members will be aware, clause 75—the power to change law—attracted significant interest in Committee and on Report. It will provide the Treasury with a power to amend legislation to enable the powers of the special resolution regime to be used more effectively. As we discussed in Committee, this is not a general power to amend legislation; it is targeted and limited. It may only be used in order to facilitate a resolution and, in using it, the Treasury must have regard to the special resolution objectives set out in clause 4. In Committee, I agreed that I would ask the expert liaison group to consider whether the amendments brought forward on Report—particularly the explicit exclusion from the scope of the power of the provisions of the Bill and underlying secondary legislation—would help to reduce the possible impact of the existence of this power on legal certainty in relation to financial contracts. The hon. Members for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) and for South-East Cornwall (Mr. Breed) and I are at one in recognising the importance of legal certainty in relation to contracts. I am pleased to report that when the expert liaison group met earlier this week, it agreed that this amendment would indeed do this. We are continuing to engage with the group on this issue, and of course the power will also be scrutinised carefully in the other place, not least by the Committee on Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform.