Clause 23
Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [Lords]
9:00 am
Ian Pearson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Dudley South, Labour)
I understand that the amendment tabled in the other place goes beyond existing national lottery practice, which is why we want to remove subsection (2). It could result in unintended consequences, and its removal would delete the requirement for Parliament to scrutinise the spending directions issued to the Big Lottery Fund by the devolved Administrations. In the spirit of devolution, the Government do not hold that Parliament should be required to discuss matters that should be more properly debated in the devolved Parliaments and Assemblies. When their lordships voted for the amendment, I am not sure whether they realised that they would require Parliament to scrutinise what are clearly devolved matters for Scotland and Wales.
The Government hold that the parliamentary scrutiny and financial spending directions also covered by the provision are inappropriate. The powers in the Bill will enable the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families to make financial directions governing matters such as the Big Lottery Fund’s accounts. They are standard powers necessary for the oversight of a non-departmental public body. It is not seriously intended that the exercise of those powers be subject to an affirmative resolution. Even if it were accepted that subsection (2) was targeted at English spending directions—although the provision goes beyond that—we would hold that the affirmative procedure was inappropriate.
In the other place, to be open and transparent about the Government’s intentions, we set out our approach to the issuing of English spending directions. The directions to the Big Lottery Fund regarding spending in England will be considered by an inter-ministerial working group—a matter that we have discussed. It will involve the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Office of the Third Sector, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Her Majesty’s Treasury. In addition, the Bill requires the BLF to be consulted during the process of developing the directions.
The inter-ministerial working group will make recommendations to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, who will issue directions to the BLF. Paragraph 9(2) of schedule 3 will require the BLF to set out in its annual report the directions given to it under clause 23 that had effect during the financial year to which the report relates. The Government understand need for transparency and have listened carefully to the points made in the other place about the possible time delay between the directions being issued and the BLF’s reporting of them.
We are happy to confirm that the BLF will publish the directions on its website as they are issued, which further underscores our commitment to transparency. As with the national lottery, the Government’s position is that this mechanism for developing and issuing directions to the BLF is the appropriate one and that creating a role for Parliament in the process, which has not happened before, would be disproportionate.