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Banking Bill

My Lords, as the Minister explained, I tabled Amendment 30 in this group, which would implement the clear recommendation of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. It stated that it would not normally have accepted such a power being put in legislation but that, exceptionally, if the House were convinced that such a power was necessary, it should be accompanied by full sunsetting: that is, of both the regulation-making power and the regulations themselves. That is what my Amendment 30 would do. We must remember that this is highly complex law dealing with important issues of rights in insolvency. I am sure that the general feeling of the House is that the right way to scrutinise that is through primary legislation, because it is only through primary legislation that we have the opportunity to scrutinise on a line-by-line basis. As the Minister is aware, secondary legislation is fundamentally non-amendable. Nevertheless, we have listened carefully to the arguments that the Government have made, and to the arguments that the London Investment Banking Association relayed to me in its letter of 6 February. I have taken the liberty of sharing that letter with the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, because I was aware of his concern about the issue. I must say that I think that the difficulties about the uncertainty that would have been introduced have been overstated, and that it would have been possible within a two-year period to have had both a statutory instrument for the short-term and at the same time to have tracked legislation, subject to proper scrutiny, for the long-term. However, in accepting the government amendments and welcoming the review—I genuinely welcome that review—I just remark that it places a great onus on the Government to carry out the most detailed consultation and to exercise their rights to propose such legislation very wisely. I think that it is unprecedented to produce such significant legislation by statutory instrument. The onus will clearly be on the Government to be careful in how they use the powers which the House has granted them without any complications of sunsetting. Once they have exercised their powers the review will be especially welcome, especially given the way that it is phrased. On balance, and with a somewhat heavy heart, we are prepared to accept the government amendments and I will not be moving Amendment 30.