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Banking Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, for his intervention. Of course, I respect the experience of the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, in this respect. I understand that my noble friend the Leader of the House recently placed in the Library of the House a paper on Commons financial privilege, which she asked to be prepared by the Clerk of the Parliaments, and which deals with this issue. Importantly, the fact that the report is not laid before this House does not mean that there would be a delay in this House being informed of the report. It would be placed in the Library and Members of this House would be able to ask questions in connection with that report. The noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, asked about confidentiality. I can only repeat the line that it is the FSA’s responsibility to initiate inquiries into any situation in which it believes there has been market abuse. The FSA is no doubt aware of the movements in a number of shares before announcements. I cannot comment on whether it has carried out or is carrying out an investigation, and if so, where it has reached. However, the authority and responsibility clearly rests with the FSA. The maintenance of confidentiality is absolutely critical in situations such as this and the leaking of information, whether to the media or to other participants in markets, can be deeply injurious. I am, therefore, very sympathetic to the sentiment that lies behind the observations of the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth.