Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)

I will in a second.

No doubt, there will be the usual courtesies when we finish and the Bill is passed to the other place. Before I give way to the hon. Gentleman, I wanted to set out why we tabled the new clause.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire, speaking for the Liberal Democrats—and later, Lord Goodhart—put forward a clause similar to new clause 9. There was an interesting debate in which we were informed that the Government did not have the power to force such legislation on the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.

I have a personal insight into why Ministers are saying what they do on the subject. When Lord Williams of Mostyn had responsibility for such matters, I went with him to see the historic ceremonies of the opening of the Manx Parliament, Tynwald. Lord Williams thought that he was going to have a jolly weekend, but none of his officials had briefed him on the fact that emergency debates had been held in the Manx Parliament, and in Jersey and Guernsey, to consider the dramatic move of secession from the UK. Those three Parliaments in our Crown dependent territories had been outraged by the way that the Government had imposed the Edwards report, which investigated their banking and financial services, on them without any consultation.

On the weekend that we were in the Isle of Man, every time Lord Williams got up to address people on what would usually have been a ceremonial occasion, he was attacked right, left and centre, not only by the Manx politicians, but by guests from Jersey and Guernsey. I was pleased that, on the two occasions on which the matter was raised, Lord Bassam of Brighton and Lord Filkin said, ''Well, of course we cannot impose this on the Crown dependencies.'' Those dependencies have learned a lesson from how

badly their fingers were burned. The Edwards report was announced very suddenly, without any of the normal consultation with Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man, because the Government were in the first of the big holes into which they dug themselves about the former Financial Secretary to the Treasury, the hon. Member for Coventry, North-West (Mr. Robinson). He had to resign because of his involvement in offshore financial matters that he had not properly declared, and the report was announced early as a desperate attempt to get everyone off the hook.

I am not ignoring what Ministers have said in introducing new clause 9. I am sure that the Minister will have the same brief as her colleagues had in another place, which is that they cannot impose the Act on the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. I have tabled the new clause purely to probe and put on record the fact that I understand why Ministers are being so careful this time around—it is because they got it so badly wrong last time. I give way to the hon. Member for Greenock and Inverclyde.

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