Compensation Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 8:"Page 2, line 3, at end insert—" ““(   )   Where authorisation is granted to a body corporate or unincorporate, there must be one or more individuals designated as ““approved persons”” for the purposes of this section.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, when we considered Part 2 in Grand Committee against the background of a general welcome for the Government’s decision to regulate this area of activity we placed a great deal of emphasis on the need to consider the Financial Services Authority-style model of regulation, under which the spotlight falls firmly on an individual approved person who is then accountable for the actions of the authorised firm. That has the effect of driving behaviour at senior level. More to the point, in the world of claims farmers, which has the unfortunate reputation of companies collapsing overnight, it leaves an individual answerable, even when the company itself is no longer trading. That is why we seek to introduce a safeguard into the Government’s proposals, so that where authorisation is granted to a limited company or some other corporate entity there is still individual accountability. While I know that the Government have moved some distance towards that model I am still concerned that the current version of the proposals falls short of that sanction. However, I want to hear not what I have to say on the amendment but what the Minister has to say, because she made extensive promises in Committee. I quote from her response to a point raised by the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, who asked:"““Is the noble Baroness likely to be in a position to give us an indication of who or what the regulator is going to be before the Bill leaves your Lordships’ House?””." The Minister responded:"““Certainly. It is my ambition that by the Report stage, the noble Lord will have information about what the Government have done on the back of Mr Boleat’s report; our considered view on which direction we intend to move; whether the regulator is to be a designated organisation, which it will be; what we propose in terms of the arrangements to set up the body and fund it; and, lastly, our views on where we expect the market to go and our assumptions based on that. We aim to give the noble Lord””—" and of course, the House—"““ . . . a clear idea of what the Government intend to do . . . I hope to achieve all that by the Report stage””.—[Official Report, 16/1/06; col. GC 183-84.]" I can hardly wait to hear what the Minister has to say. I beg to move.