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Banking Bill

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, for her intervention; we could go on at some length here. The answer is, as we previously covered, and as in the ideal model to which the noble Lord, Lord Newby, referred—albeit one which we have both suggested has shortcomings at present—the development of the strategy is a matter for the board of directors, who will put it to the shareholders. In the case where we are but one shareholder—albeit the largest shareholder—it will be put to all shareholders. Royal Bank of Scotland’s strategy will not be solely approved by the Government with complete disregard for other shareholders, with no engagement between the bank and other shareholders as would customarily be the case where the UK Government was not a large shareholder. In a case such as Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, where the bank is currently, temporarily, 100 per cent in public ownership, the process is rather more direct, but there is a very clear difference between those who are charged with developing and executing strategy—the board and the management—and those who are charged with approving strategy, the shareholders.