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Banking Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her response to the government amendments and also to my noble friend. Both made interesting contributions in Committee which enabled us to get this additional work under way. As I have indicated, we were not totally convinced in the early stages that these additional clarifications were necessary but we recognise the force with which they have been put—not least by my noble friend and I am glad that he thinks that the amendments meet the points that he made. I am also grateful to the noble Baroness for the full part that she has played in these matters. As for her points about the necessity for additional co-operation, we will certainly publish the draft statutory instruments on Royal Assent. One of the great advantages of the substantial consultation that was carried out throughout the drafting of this legislation and its development over the past year is that we are in a position to make commitments of promptitude on secondary legislation. We will continue to work with the Expert Liaison Group on the detail of these draft orders before they are finished and made on commencement of Part 1 on 20 February. I give the noble Baroness our assurance on that and agree with her that for the Expert Liaison Group to become the Banking Liaison Group is a proper forum for that. My honourable friend the Economic Secretary indicated that the process should be as open as possible. He said that he was committed to seeking the Expert Liaison Group’s views on whether its minutes should be published. He did not meet with a totally positive response. The group did agree that high level summaries of the discussion and the conclusions could be usefully made public, so there will be openness in that respect. I hope that that is sufficient to assure the noble Baroness that we intend to proceed on the basis of openness. We intend to check with the group whether it thinks that any specific advice that it gives to the Government should be made public. If it does, we will commit the Treasury to publishing it and providing a copy to Parliament. Amendment 9 agreed. Clause 38: Termination rights, &c. Amendments 10 to 12 not moved