Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I do not think that the Government have sufficiently taken on board the enormous importance of continuity. They accept that it should happen but, by resisting the sort of amendment that would specifically spell it out, they make one feel that it is rather a subsidiary objective. The clause contains several objectives, such as protecting public funds, enhancing, "public confidence in...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, I add a brief word in support of what my noble friend has just said. There was a long period of public discussion about where the responsibility and authority lay in the case of Northern Rock. It was almost a classic case of what can happen when these matters are not thoroughly clarified. If this complicated legislation is to work effectively, it must be publicly understood where...
Lord Stewartby: I was taken rather by surprise by subsection (3) as it is not immediately apparent for whose benefit it is included. Is it to protect the Treasury or the Bank of England? What lies behind it? If the Minister says that the amendment is not needed, presumably that will be because the thinking behind subsection (3) copes with questions of whose interest is at stake, but it does not leap off the...
Lord Stewartby: Briefly, I support what my noble friends Lady Noakes and Lord Eccles have said. This is one of those places in the Bill when it would be sensible for the Government to take our arguments on board. I hope that that will be the outcome.
Lord Stewartby: I am certainly not unsympathetic to the concerns that lie behind the amendment. However, without trying to scotch the amendment in any sense, I point out that this is an exceedingly difficult process to provide for by statute. An amendment such as this would not function along the lines that its sponsors would like to see. As has been pointed out, there can be some public interest appointment...
Lord Stewartby: On the point raised by my noble friend, I am trying to work out what happens if the liquidation committee ceases to exist. Does the bank liquidator ignore this part of the clause about the liquidation committee and carry on regardless on his own?
Lord Stewartby: Can the Minister give me an assurance? Looking at all these clauses on continuity obligations, I ask myself what would happen if the particular services were outsourced, or partly outsourced. I imagine that the Government will have considered the point and, I presume, will have satisfied themselves that that is covered by the Bill. However, it is difficult to think through the practical...
Lord Stewartby: I hope that the Minister will have another look at this clause in the light of this debate and the points that have been raised. I think that one matter of language could be improved. When I first read Clause 57(3), I was confused as to what was to be disregarded. The text says that, "an independent valuer must disregard actual or potential financial assistance provided by the Bank of England...
Lord Stewartby: Before my noble friend withdraws her amendment, can the Minister respond to the queries I raised?
Lord Stewartby: Perhaps I may raise a very small point on Amendment 82 and seek some enlightenment from the Minister. Amendment 82 would amend the clause to read that "security interests" means "arrangements under which one person acquires by way of security an actual or contingent interest in the property of another". The amendment seeks to introduce into the clause the phrase "by way of security". Does...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, the Minister gave quite a long Answer to the Question, but I understood from what he said that he was justifying the present situation on the basis of it being compatible with the British Nationality Act 1981. A lot has changed since the early 1980s, especially the need to be vigilant against links with terrorists. Does it remain a matter of unconcern to Her Majesty's Government...
Lord Stewartby: I apologise to the Committee for being so dim but I cannot understand Amendment 43. Proposed new subsection (1B)(a) says that a provision, "takes effect only if a specified event occurs or does not occur"— in other words, whether it occurs or not. I do not understand that. It is bound to either occur or not occur, just as my dinner tonight was bound to occur or not occur. I think I have...
Lord Stewartby: I shall reflect on that.
Lord Stewartby: I have absolutely no problem with requiring the code of practice to include sensible provision about the situation of directors. In particular, on the point just raised by my noble friend Lord Blackwell, some clarification would be very helpful. In fact, it would be necessary before anybody took up the role as a director of one of these companies. I should like to raise a point parallel to...
Lord Stewartby: This code of practice is very important and is subject to substantial, or even complete, rewriting without any obvious input from consultation or Parliament. I hope that the Government will look again at this. Amendment 24 suggests that a positive resolution of each House of Parliament should be built into the Bill. If that is not done, the code, which governs in large measure how the Bill is...
Lord Stewartby: I suggest to the noble Lord that he is going to have to accept this provision sooner or later; it would be very good if it were sooner.
Lord Stewartby: On the comment made by the noble Lord, Lord Newby, about whether it is a good thing to spell out bluntly that the Treasury is in the ultimate key position, this issue arises more generally. After all, we are only dealing here with a Bill that deals with the special resolution regime. We have a whole new tranche of provisions to come in another Bill, in which these things will have to be spelt...
Lord Stewartby: I intervene only very briefly to ask the Minister to explain the definition of a UK institution, because under the first and second amendments that we are considering, "bank" is defined at the beginning of Clause 2 as being a deposit-taking UK institution. For that purpose, what is the definition of a UK institution?
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, the debate today has been on a higher level than much of the public comment in the press and news bulletins. I am glad to be able to take part in a debate which is beginning to identify some of the underlying difficulties that have arisen in these exceptional circumstances. I have no current interests to declare but I have been involved with banks or banking throughout most of my...
Lord Stewartby: My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Peston, said that he was perhaps coming to the end of his time. Many of us in your Lordships' House profoundly hope that that is not the case. His contributions to our debates are always worth listening to, and you cannot say that of everyone. The noble Lord has faced us yet again with some of the tough dilemmas that are inherent in our situation. I do not...
