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Financial Services Bill

My Lords, I wish to register my complete dismay at this whole swathe of the Bill being deleted in this arbitrary way by agreement between the Front Benches. As we move into an election phase, politicians of all parties will be going up and down the country meeting individuals and businesses who feel very badly let down by the banking system in particular. It will be difficult to explain why, of all elements of this Bill, the one that sought to redress the balance between consumers and the banking system should have been picked out for deletion by the Conservative Party and why the Government succumbed so easily to that proposition. I declare an interest as chair of Consumer Focus. With all due respect to the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, this subsumes customers, clients, depositors, borrowers and so on in the financial system. This part of the Bill would have been a very popular and effective way of restoring the balance between the financial sector, which has so let down this country, and a lot of individuals and businesses. Seeing it deleted from the Bill in this way is a source of deep regret to me, as it will be, I think, for many people up and down the land.