My Lords, I listened with enormous interest to what my noble friend said. The Bill is obviously an attempt to help all concerned in the circumstances that he described. However, I am concerned about one matter from the point of view of the bank's customer. The excellent Explanatory Notes which the noble Viscount has provided with his Bill explain that, where several cheques are presented simultaneously and there are insufficient funds to satisfy them all, the bank in practice will choose which cheques it satisfies from the funds available. It could not satisfy them all if the customer did not have sufficient funds. Therefore, the bank would choose which cheques to honour.

The Explanatory Notes go on to say:

"This could be done in a way which would do the least damage to the interests of the customer of the bank".

When my noble friend replies to the debate, can he tell me how the bank will decide which cheques are satisfied and which are not, and whether the bank would consult the customer in making that decision. I should be very grateful if in due course my noble friend could answer that question.