Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

The noble Lord, Lord Higgins, will obviously decide what he wants to do about Amendment No. 4, but perhaps I may touch briefly on what the noble Lord, Lord Bach, said about my Amendment No. 32. If one reads Clause 8(2) very carefully, it is just about possible to make out what the Government intend. However, legislation should surely be intelligible to the reasonably literate man in the street. The noble Lord, Lord Davies, might consider having the clause redrafted so that it makes a little more sense. It would not do any harm to insert the word ““contractually”” after ““interest”” in Clause 8, simply as belt-and-braces extra clarification. Will the noble Lord confirm that interest at the standard rate, which is currently 20 per cent, will be deducted from all the accumulated payments and paid over to the Treasury annually? I imagine that that is the case. What happens about higher-rate tax, which will be due in a few cases, I have no idea.