Clause 175
Banking Bill
12:30 pm
David Gauke (Shadow Minister, Treasury; South West Hertfordshire, Conservative)
The clause relates to codes of practice. I know that the Minister is not keen to have a lengthy debate about “may” and “must”, but I shall raise the issue briefly. Does the Bank of England intend to publish codes of practice? My second point is about consultation. The clause does not mention consultation with operators, or state whether the Treasury or the Bank of England intend to hold consultation about codes of practice and any changes to them.
Are the codes of practice intended to elaborate on the principles, or will they address new areas? To the layman, the principles look comprehensive but perhaps the Minister will clarify that point. Finally, the Bank for International Settlements produces material that could be described as a code of practice that elaborates on the principles. I looked at it last night—there are about 100 pages of material along those lines. The Minister said that the principles are likely to be similar to existing core principles; will the codes of practice mentioned in clause 175 be similar to that of the Bank for International Settlements?