---

Financial Services Bill

The amendments in this group are technical and aim to clarify in the Bill the position of an "authorised person" or a "skilled person" with regard to certain information that would otherwise be subject to a contractual or other requirement to keep in confidence. The current crafting of new Section 139E(6) creates a gateway for other parties to provide confidential information relevant to the preparation of a recovery or resolution plan to an authorised person or a skilled person under specified circumstances. The amendment to new Section 139E makes clear that an authorised person may, for example, include such information in its recovery or resolution plan and submit it to the FSA without having to seek the consent of a third party. The amendment to Schedule 2 addresses the same point, but relates to a skilled person appointed under Section 139E(2). A skilled person under the new provision is to be treated under Section 348 of the FSMA in the same way as a skilled person appointed to make a report under Section 166, and would accordingly be subject to restrictions on disclosure. A corresponding amendment will need to be made to the table in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Disclosure of Confidential Information) Regulations 2001 to provide the necessary gateway for the skilled person to disclose information to the FSA. I beg to move.