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Banking Bill

Perhaps the Minister could help the Committee by clarifying the consistency of Clause 4(2) with the point that I raised about the last but one amendment to Clause 7(6). He will recall that I asked why the special resolution objectives were not relevant to condition 1, where a bank was likely to fail, or to condition 2, where a bank did not reach the threshold conditions. He gave a reply which I am sure was very accurate but which was rather difficult to follow at the time. No criticism is implied, but I think that that was the situation for some Members of the Committee. I took the Minister to be saying that the special resolution objectives were more general background objectives, although I have difficulty seeing how objective 3, to protect depositors, is not relevant to condition 1, where a bank is likely to fail. However, I do not want to go back to the argument about the previous amendment and the previous clause. I am sure that this matter can be clarified, because these things are often much simpler than they appear, but why are the special resolution objectives, which relate to the stabilisation powers, not relevant to conditions 1 and 2, although they relate to a stabilisation power? In Clause 4(2), which cites the stabilisation powers, we are told that the authorities, "““shall have regard to the special resolution objectives””—" namely, objectives 2, 3 and 4. How are the two parts of the legislation consistent?