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Banking Bill

I am grateful to noble Lords who have taken part in this short debate. I am especially grateful to the Minister because he has provided me with the verb that I was searching for in Amendment 80. Noble Lords may remember that my problem was the wording ““shall not undermine””. The Minister tells me that the Government’s objective is that a partial transfer ““should not disrupt””. I will be very happy to move that amendment again on Report, worded in exactly the way that the Minister has so kindly suggested. Turning to Amendment 97, I take the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Blackwell. He is absolutely right. The compensation should not be greater than that which would be encountered in insolvency. I recognise that this is a significant criticism of the amendments as I have tabled them. What the debate has made clear to me is that perhaps some of this compensation route is an appropriate way of dealing with this difficult problem. We need to look at the compensation route in alliance with the other ways that we are attempting to deal with it. Given that the Minister has said that those considerations will continue, and given, especially, his incredible generosity in correcting Amendment 80, which I will now introduce on Report in the Government’s own language, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 79 withdrawn. Clause 49 agreed. Clauses 50 to 53 agreed.