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Banking Bill (Money)

It is a hiatus valde defiendus in the learning of the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) that he is not instantly familiar with the word ““subserviate””. That lacuna in his knowledge has now been addressed, and I hope that the word can be used in future legislation. The hon. Gentleman said that we had reached the right point with amendments 17 and 31, so I need not explain them any further. I will just say that we reflected on Baroness Noakes's amendments and that I appreciate the hon. Gentleman's support and his agreement that we have the balance right at the moment. The hon. Gentleman did some probing about what we could expect to see in the report introduced by Government amendment 58. We have had numerous debates about what should rightly be in a Bill and what should be done through codes of practice, secondary legislation or the normal course of Government reporting. We do not believe that the Bill should list the specifics of what should be included in every report. The bounds of commercial confidentiality need to be respected; we have to bear it in mind that banks in this situation will still be commercial bodies undertaking commercial transactions, and that there is rightly a duty of commercial confidentiality. However, while respecting that, we should still be as open and transparent as possible in respect of the information that we provide. I hear what the hon. Gentleman said about Bradford & Bingley. My understanding is that it will publish a version of the business plan on which it has been working. The hon. Gentleman will be aware of the reporting with regard to Northern Rock. As I outlined earlier, there are other opportunities, in addition to the annual report, for hon. Members to probe Ministers on banks in temporary public ownership.