Compensation Bill [HL]

We are all right and we can carry on, unless we want to pop along to the Commons and vote. The Deputy Chairman was very alert—more alert than the rest of us in spotting the Division sign, but I fear that it was a mistake. I say immediately to the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, that we are looking to consult the various ombudsmen. We are very aware of the role of the Housing Ombudsman Service. We are talking to the British and Irish Ombudsman Association and individual ombudsmen about the particular regulations. The noble Lord will appreciate that that is being done by my officials, and I cannot give the detail at this stage because I have not yet had a report back, but I can reassure him that it is happening. If the noble Lord would like, I could write to him with the results of those deliberations to see that they are involved, but I can categorically state that they are, indeed, involved in what we are seeking to do. I have looked carefully at the construction by parliamentary counsel of the definition in Clause 2 to ensure that we were not in danger of failing to capture all the claims services. The way that the clause is constructed is to allow provisions to be dependent on each other, so the clause in its entirety seeks to bring all the claims management services within scope, but regulation will apply only to those specified in the order that we have made under Clause 2(2)(e). In other words, we start very broad and we narrow it down, using the regulations in that way. We felt that was a better approach, because it enables us, through regulation, to add later if it were appropriate to capture other areas where we felt it was important to regulate; as we would have done had we had this legislation in place before endowment mis-selling came to our attention. We are convinced that the way that the clause is constructed does achieve what the noble Lord is seeking. It achieves it in a particular way, and we have confirmed that with parliamentary counsel. The noble Lord asked about voluntary undertaking under Amendment No. 30. ““Undertaking”” in this context effectively means a promise, and we have included it to ensure that those less formal ex gratia payment schemes are covered. The obvious one is that which insurance companies have to compensate their customers for mis-sold endowment policies. That is exactly what the idea of voluntary undertaking in the legislation seeks to do. We felt that was an important element to include in the Bill, because we want to make sure that the issue of mis-sold endowment policies is captured in the legislation. I have heard from parliamentary counsel that that is what that seeks to do. Although I have given a relatively brief contribution, I am at one with what the noble Lord seeks to do. The way that we have framed Clause 2 captures it in that way, and I hope that I have given an explanation of what ““voluntary undertaking”” means, but I am happy to write to the noble Lord if he would like further clarification from parliamentary counsel, who would be delighted to give it.