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Banking Bill

My Lords, before the Minister sits down, will he clarify things that he has said that have left me puzzled? I am interested in particular in the idea that the legislation would govern any decision to provide assistance to people with mortgages who are in difficulties. I did not understand that that was required in this legislation. The Department for Communities and Local Government runs the scheme, but I did not think that it was restricted to customers of banks under the special resolution regime who might benefit. If I follow the Minister’s logic, he also said that we require this clause to provide to banks anything that then assists their customers above and beyond normal business, into which category shared equity schemes, which the Government have been promoting for some time, would also fall. So I gently suggest to him that I really do not follow that logic and I am not sure that, in terms of these examples, his explanation is entirely consistent with current and previous practice.