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Banking Bill

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, that it is important to try to bring together all the schemes that are being used to provide assistance or support in various ways. The amendment deals with the money that comes from Parliament; it does not necessarily capture absolutely everything that goes through the Bank of England directly, but it covers the majority of it. I further agree with the noble Lord on the content of the PBR and the Budget, but we will have that debate another day. The noble Lord, Lord Newby, is right that it is important to look at a series of reports to see a build-up over time. I think that I thank my noble friend Lord Eccles for his contribution on the typing error that has been made on the Marshalled List. I am sure that it is not a major impediment. The Minister tried to portray the provisions of Clauses 227 and 228 as rather routine. I am sure that much is routine in their structure, although not the latter’s subsections. The issue is that the content is not routine. The content endorses both the payment and the commitment of very large sums of money. We learnt in Committee that this clause is being used to frank the £37 billion already committed via bank rescue 1. This clause will provide the backing for anything that comes out of bank rescue 2, including the guarantees to the Bank of England. This clause will provide the cover for the various guarantee schemes that the noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, has been announcing, as well as other schemes. We are talking about major sums of public money. The Minister explained about estimates and the Comptroller and Auditor-General, none of which is in dispute. The issue is how we pull information together so that Parliament can, over time, track the build-up of not only the money that has been spent but, more important, the money that has been committed. These are exceptional times and it is right that Parliament should have an exceptional degree of scrutiny of what is being done under the authority provided by the Bill. Parliament should not have to wait for the normal production of annual accounts or the laying of Treasury minutes. The information should be pulled together and explained. This is a very important issue. I do not believe that any of the Government’s objections have real substance. I beg leave to test the opinion of the House. Division on Amendment 81 Contents 166; Not-Contents 131. Amendment 81 agreed.