Lord Stewartby: My Lords, when I first saw the wording of this Question, I wondered whether my noble friend was being asked to speculate about what the actual numbers might be. We heard some useful information this afternoon in that direction, but it is a long-running episode which requires attention from Defence Ministers all the time. I hoped that we could have a bit more precision. After all, the Question...
Lord Stewartby: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they have taken to ensure that cheques will continue to be available for those who wish to use them, including in particular charities and the elderly.
Lord Stewartby: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to reconsider the attitudes, capabilities and experience required for senior posts in regulation in the light of the outcome of the Davis Review of the Financial Conduct Authority.
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I do not know whether it was my timing that went wrong, but it enables me to take a slightly more detached view about proceedings over the past couple of hours. I have crossed out most of my speech anyway, so that is no problem. What is left is a whole area of vagueness. There is very little in the way of action taken. You get the feeling that somehow people thought that, if they...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I came in this afternoon hoping for enlightenment. I received much more and varied judgment expressed from all corners of the House. But the one thing that everything leads to is an assumption that the ring-fence will not work and I am afraid to say that I agree. I do not say that with any satisfaction. A lot of time and effort has been put into this by very well-informed people,...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, when I came into the Chamber this afternoon I was nervous because I would have to make a confession, that I do not really understand large tracts of the Bill. I thought that I had better be honest about that. My noble friend Lord Higgins has put his finger on the spot—this is nothing that can be sorted out by fine words. There is an awful lot of verbiage in the Bill. There are...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I shall be very brief, but there is one point on which I should like confirmation from the Minister when he sums up. The provisions that have been introduced into this statute refer to all sorts of guidance and recommendations. They do not include the valuation of shares, yet quite a lot of the discussion has taken place as though they do. An opportunity to correct that would be helpful.
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I will not follow in detail what my noble friend Lord Flight said in his excellent introduction to this debate, because he said most of what I would like to say, but much more eloquently than I could. What comes out of this debate, despite the various points that have not yet been cleared up, is that this is a voluntary activity. Employee shareholders would come about only if the...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I support my noble friend, who has explained this technical area very skilfully. Like him, I have to declare an interest as a member of the parliamentary fund and I was a trustee for several years. The great advantage of that is that one does not come to the details of this sort of provision completely unsighted. However, it is a very complicated Bill. As the noble Lord, Lord...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I must be very brief and I shall speak only once. I want to say something in support of my noble friend Lord Flight, who made a very strong case. I have never been able to understand why financial advisers alone have no longstop for their potential liability in future years. I hope that this opportunity of having legislation which is relevant can be taken to set that right.
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I, too, would like some assistance from my noble friend. It is not easy to understand, in large parts of this Bill, what it is trying to get at. I raise this under discussion of Clause 6 because that is what permits the transfer of regulation of consumer and small business credit from the Office of Fair Trading to the new Financial Conduct Authority. I have had an approach about...
Lord Stewartby: A brief point of order: the screen has got stuck.
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I was interested to hear the comments from the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, on the nature of the work that will face the panel. It sounds like something that overlaps considerably with the Board of Banking Supervision in the late 1980s. Obviously that was working in different circumstances, but each of the bodies require, or required, people of an unusual stripe who combine a practical...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I would like to add a word to what the noble Lord, Lord Peston, has said, in particular to ask my noble friend Lord Flight about the frequency with which this situation is likely to happen. Would it be an exceptionally rare event, because that may affect the way in which one approaches it?
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I well remember the debates that we had all those years ago on the Monetary Policy Committee, and how many objectives could be added to the central one. This is a bit of a nostalgic occasion, because we are going through different subject matter but the same basic problems. I start from the point that the more of these extras you have, the more confusing they are likely to become...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I do not want at any length to add to what many noble Lords have said, except to record that this is one of the most incomprehensible Bills that I have had business with. Several times I started on what I thought was a trail of decisions, and at the end of it I could not work out who did what and how they knew what they should do. I have one small technical question for my noble...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, this has been a remarkable debate, full of interesting and useful comments on the proposed new scheme of regulation. Having read a few pages of the Bill when it first became available, I felt a bit dizzy because it is very difficult and complex. I think that there is more than enough to keep us happy-if that is the right word-in Committee. Many points at issue have been discussed. I...
Lord Stewartby: For information, is the no-detriment principle embodied anywhere in statute within the devolution area?
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I want to add only a small footnote. I begin by expressing our gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Marlesford, for the diligence that he has shown, not only on this occasion and in this context but because he is constantly on the lookout for failures or delays by government departments or other public bodies. He has made rather a specialisation of taking the opportunity to raise these...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, will my noble friend say something about supervision and where it fits into this very complicated arrangement of new committees and authorities? The report of the Joint Committee, which was published only today, states that it is planned that microprudential regulation will be done through a new subsidiary body called the prudential regulatory authority. However, regulation is not a...
