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Banking Bill

I have some sympathy with my noble friend’s amendment but, like the noble Lord, Lord Newby, I wonder whether three years is a slightly arbitrary timescale. It seems to me that the intent behind ““temporary”” is important. The intent is for this legislation to be used to bring about restructuring, and I wonder whether an alternative way of achieving this objective is to require the Government, at the point that the legislation is used to bring a bank into public ownership, to indicate what timescale they believe is necessary to achieve a restructuring. It may be three years but in some cases, realistically, it may take longer to get a bank back into private ownership. However, if at the time they used the powers the Government were prepared to define the timescale, they could be held to account against that timescale to ensure that temporary did not become permanent.