Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

I am grateful to noble Lords who have contributed to this short debate, particularly to the noble Lords, Lord Newby and Lord Shutt, who have raised very interesting issues with the amendment. I have no doubt that the noble Baroness will answer with her usual accuracy. I was surprised, however, that neither the noble Lord, Lord Shutt, nor the noble Lord, Lord Newby, drew attention to the fact that the concept of distribution proposed by the Government in the Bill pays due regard to the rights and obligations of the national Assemblies and Parliaments of our devolved Administrations. We have been scrupulous in recognising that they have a role in defining priorities for their areas—a role that would be handed over to the Secretary of State if the noble Baroness’s alternative model of distribution were accepted. We are seeking to develop a light-touch structure, one to which the financial organisations, the banks and the building societies, are prepared to subscribe, for the distribution of resources. I wonder how much consultation the noble Baroness has carried out with those organisations on the suggestion that the Secretary of State should have a much more significant role with regard to the allocation of priorities. She readily identifies national priorities spanning the whole of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, while the Bill pays due regard to the fact that our banks and building societies have concerns for their localities. We have provided a structure within the framework to deal with that. We will have many opportunities to discuss the strengths of the Government’s proposals in detail, particularly the strength of our proposal that the Big Lottery Fund should be the distribution mechanism. It is not for me to test extensively on that now, although I have indicated already that the fund has great strengths in terms of its representation in each of the four areas of the United Kingdom, and its regional and local representation—to say nothing of its great experience. But this amendment is translated from a distribution mechanism which has all those scruples and flexibilities attached to it and potentially establishes by order the Secretary of State as provider of an alternative national distribution mechanism. I hope noble Lords will recognise that it deliberately runs counter to the whole thinking behind the Bill and to one of the most important concepts—that the Government are seeking to enlist the willing co-operation support and administration of resources that are within their domain. This amendment looks like the great hammer of central government being imposed instead. I hope that the noble Baroness will appreciate that I have the strongest reservations about the amendment and recognise that we will have plenty of time in due course to discuss the ways in which we could perfect the alternative mechanism that the Government propose.