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Financial Services Bill

I entirely agree. When the Chancellor talked about the CFS, he argued that the arrangements will increase both transparency and accountability, but any analysis of the Government's proposals reveals that potential to be fairly limited. It is not entirely clear how much transparency will be established by the Bill. Whereas under the tripartite system no minutes were published and there was no report to Parliament, the CFS will publish minutes but with a caveat that a significant proportion will not be suitable for publication. There may or may not be good arguments for not publishing the entire minutes of CFS discussions, but the Government cannot start claiming greater transparency on the one hand, and then take it away with the other. That is, at best, a significant failure. The Bill establishes the council and gives to one of its participants a huge extension of powers. Given that it has been accepted that the tripartite system failed, why should one of the parties to that failure be given even more significant powers, especially when the Government argued that its existing powers were satisfactory? Can the Government reassure us that this new council is likely to be any more successful in ensuring prudential supervision and stability of the monetary system? Given the limited information the Government have currently laid out, it is difficult for any analysis to be able to conclude that. On that basis, my hon. Friend the Member for Tatton is right to ask the Government to explain why they have not considered abolishing the system and restoring the Bank of England's responsibility for maintaining financial stability.