Clause 6
Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [Lords]
12:00 pm
Ian Pearson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Dudley South, Labour)
As I made clear earlier, we want the reclaim fund to operate in a transparent way. Our amendments show that we have listened to the debate and that we seek to reinforce transparency. We did that with Government amendments Nos. 21 to 25, which require the fund to publish the information referred to in clause 6 as soon as possible after the end of each financial year. That information will be available for all to see, including hon. Members. I hope that that satisfies any concerns that there will not be full transparency and scrutiny of the reclaim fund. However, requiring the reclaim fund to lay its annual accounts and reports before Parliament would be inappropriate and out of keeping with the Bill.
I shall briefly restate why clause 6 is unnecessary and why I oppose it standing part of the Bill. Representations have been made that the reclaim fund should be regarded as a public sector body as a result of the Treasury’s direction-making power, which has been discussed, and that that justifies additional parliamentary scrutiny. We have already debated those points, but I want to re-emphasise the fact that the reclaim fund is not a public sector body; it is a private company operating under company law.
As I have said, we do not envisage using the direction-making power to interfere in the day-to-day running of the reclaim fund and the management of its money. The FSA is responsible for regulating the reclaim fund for prudential purposes.
For the reasons I have outlined, the improvements in transparency made by Government amendments Nos. 21 to 25 and the explanations we have given about why we envisage using the direction-making power only in exceptional circumstances mean that a requirement for the reclaim fund to put its annual report and accounts before Parliament would be excessive and unnecessary. That is why I recommend hon. Members not to support clause 6.