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Banking Bill

I am conscious of the noble Lord’s expertise in this area and of my own limitations, so I shall reply to him in the following vein. What he has described is clearly the intention behind this legislation. We want to ensure that bank insolvency and administration—the procedures established in Parts 2 and 3 of the Bill—should be deemed to be a qualifying insolvency event for the purposes of the Pensions Act. The noble Lord knows that this would mean that, should a bank administrator or liquidator be appointed in accordance with those parts of the Bill, the insolvency practitioners would be under a statutory obligation to file a notice to the board of the PPF informing it of whether or not they considered that the scheme could be rescued, and the other relevant provisions of the Pensions Act 2004 would apply. The Government are considering consequential amendments to make that effective. Such an amendment would be made either to Clause 253 or under the relevant provisions of the Pensions Act 2004. The noble Lord has made his case. We intend to respond. I hope that he feels that this is a constructive response.