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Financial Services Bill

My Lords, the Bill gives great new powers to the FSA and strengthens it considerably. The case has been made today by the noble Lords, Lord Henley and Lord Howard, and very strongly by the noble Lord, Lord Lawson, for abolishing the FSA and transferring the powers to the Bank of England. It is not a party political issue: it is an issue of what is the right thing to do. I will quote some of the things that have been said elsewhere. Hector Sants, the current chief executive of the FSA, who has an obvious interest, was quoted recently as saying that this would return regulation "to the dark ages". I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, who is not here, will forgive me for quoting him. He was originally an agnostic, but said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Davos, a very popular place these days, that, ""in the middle of a financial crisis, I wouldn't have done it"." He said last year that he was agnostic about the Conservative plans to axe the regulator and beef up the powers and responsibilities of the Bank of England; but he is opposed to it now, in current circumstances. Well, everybody can change their mind and he has changed his. For my part, I could accept the case in principle. After all, the FSA has failed appallingly in the regulation for which it was responsible, so it is not difficult to recommend its abolition. On the other hand, although in principle I would have no objection, in current circumstances—with great respect in particular to the noble Lord, Lord Lawson—the case has not been well made. The fact is—