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Banking Bill

On the comment made by the noble Lord, Lord Newby, about whether it is a good thing to spell out bluntly that the Treasury is in the ultimate key position, this issue arises more generally. After all, we are only dealing here with a Bill that deals with the special resolution regime. We have a whole new tranche of provisions to come in another Bill, in which these things will have to be spelt out one way or another, just as there will need to be some sort of clause along the lines of Amendment 5. The lack of effective consultation between the parties—there may have been a lot of consultation, but we all know from the end result that it was not a very effective process—means that more clarity will have to be given to this. Although it is putting the cart before the horse, the Bill needs to contain some broad principles that will be defined for much wider application in an ensuing thorough Bill on banking regulation and related topics, which I understand is being worked on. A difficulty with this Bill is that we need to be as specific as possible to avoid any sort of gum-up of the system, as occurred because of Northern Rock and related issues. My view is that probably legislation has to say something about the view of the Treasury prevailing. Otherwise, we go back into a ring-a-ring o’ roses situation and nobody knows exactly who is going to be in the key position. My noble friend has done us a service in bringing forward Amendments 4 and 5 because although they apply here only to the special resolution regime, they must be consistent with what is going to be done on a broader canvas when subsequent legislation comes forward.