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Financial Services Bill

I apologise to the noble Earl, Lord Ferrers, for once again evidencing the fact that I still have much to learn. Of course I will not be elected, but I am looking forward, as I am sure the noble Earl understands, to the Labour Party being re-elected. I was going to say that I have even less experience of wash-up; in fact, it meant something very different to me until about a month ago when I began to hear the term being used. As I understand it, wash-up requires all Bills to go through their remaining stages in each House and therefore to be subject to whatever scrutiny Parliament is able to provide. At a certain point the usual channels will then address the issue of what is to be done with Bills that have not completed their full parliamentary process, but I suspect that almost everyone in the House knows more about the practice of wash-up than I do. With the exception of the noble Baroness’s amendment, which I have indicated that the Government are happy to accept, I urge her not to press her other amendments.