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Banking Bill

Clause 72: Enforcement Debate on whether Clause 72 should stand part of the Bill. I can be brief. I have signalled that I oppose Clauses 72 and 73 standing part of the Bill on a probing basis. They deal with enforcement and disputes respectively. I suspect that these clauses are more symptoms of the Government not having worked out in advance how they will deal with the important areas of enforcement and disputes. However, I shall give them the benefit of the doubt and invite the Minister to set out for the record how the Government see both enforcement and dispute provisions working. I invite the Minister to say when those provisions will be revealed to the world in draft and what consultation they expect to undertake. I also ask the Minister to address why the regulations are to be dealt with by the negative procedure only under Clause 72. I appreciate that the power does not extend to the creation of a criminal offence or the imposition of a penalty but, nevertheless, the rights of individuals may be seriously affected by the detailed regulations. In those circumstances, it is normally the case that Parliament should have a say in how those regulations are drawn.