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Banking Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord. I do not think he has covered my initial question. Are we totally abandoning the traditional form of approval of expenditure when the sums involved are likely to be large? One can see the need for urgency in certain circumstances. but if the House of Commons is sitting I am not clear why it would not be possible to deal with this as a matter of great urgency in 24 or 48 hours. This would of course be totally without precedent. The problem arises when the House is not sitting. With the kind of sums likely to be involved if we are dealing with systemic risk, there would be a strong argument for recalling Parliament. The clauses effectively overrule all the traditional ways in which Parliament and our democratic system keep control of expenditure. It would seem from Amendment 174B that the Treasury simply decides that the expenditure is needed and says it is too urgent for Parliament to exercise any control—even after the event. That would clearly be a stable door and horse-bolting situation. None the less, to include a provision for the matter coming before Parliament the moment it has occurred would be desirable. The question which the noble Lord did not realise I asked is on Amendment 174B. It says, "““the Treasury shall as soon as is reasonably practicable lay a report before Parliament specifying the amount paid (but not the identity of the institution to or in respect of which it is paid)””." I do not see why that is the case. It is extraordinary that not only is there no apparent control in the event but, when the report has been submitted, it need not specify to whom or in respect of what the amount has been paid. That is an incredibly wide-ranging provision. I do not see the need for it.