Clause 39

Part of Banking Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:15 pm on 11 November 2008.

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Photo of Ian Pearson Ian Pearson Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Economic and Business), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, Economic Secretary (Economic and Business), HM Treasury 12:15, 11 November 2008

As I explained, recent experience is obviously framed by specific situations in which the Government and the authorities have taken action, but  it has also produced a great deal of thinking within the authorities about what powers are needed. It has given us the opportunity to look at hypothetical circumstances as well as real situations when framing the legislation. As a result of those broad deliberations, we believed that it was appropriate to provide additional flexibilities for the future. I do not want to be drawn on the detail, not because I am not happy to defend the actions that we have taken—far from it—but there is still the possibility of future litigation, so it is probably best that the detail of these matters is not directly discussed.