Clause 4
Banking Bill
12:15 pm
Ian Pearson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Dudley South, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman clearly understands the clause, including subsection (9), which states:
“The order in which the objectives are listed in this section is not significant; they are to be balanced as appropriate in each case.”
Yet he is trying to get the Government to indicate that certain areas are priorities; they are all priorities for us. We will want to make decisions depending on the circumstances of particular cases. We believe that we are discussing the right sorts of areas. I resist his view that one objective is more important than another; they need to be balanced.