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Banking Bill

My Lords, as a member of the Constitution Committee, I support the noble Lord, Lord Goodlad. I seek clarification, as does the committee and as he indicated, of the meaning of ““desirable””. It seems to me, first, to be as open-ended as a word can be. One is never happy to see words like ““desirable”” in legislation. Secondly, they are very subjective. Thirdly, many things are desirable. We desire all sorts of things which may not be strictly necessary. One is in a wholly different world when one compares what is desirable and what is necessary. I echo the words of the noble Lord, Lord Goodlad. Many of us in the committee—and by tradition we lawyers—are nervous of anything that is retrospective. But, of course, this is not a penal clause. Had it been a penal criminal clause, we probably would have much stronger views. I reiterate the words of the noble Lord that the committee was not against retrospection in principle. There may be circumstances where retrospection is necessary. Anyone who has listened to what emanated from Davos will be abundantly clear in his or her own mind that some of the great financial geniuses of the world do not know exactly and confidently where they are going. In those circumstances, there may be a need for a clause to ensure that the Government of the day may be able to bring in powers where they are necessary, because we just do not know what is necessary. But I would need great persuasion to accept the word ““desirable”” in a statute of this kind.