Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

Or private company. The Minister has not yet produced such an example. I think that he will struggle to find a precedent for a private company having over it a specific power of direction of this nature. The Minister has described it as light-touch regulation. I find it difficult to find anything that is much heavier handed than a Treasury direction. It is the complete reverse. A sledgehammer solution is being written into the Bill. We have pressed the Minister on what this is really about. The only example that has been given was first described as ““excessive costs”” and then described as ““directors’ remuneration””. That is the Treasury micromanaging the reclaim fund; it is not a big, overall issue. Is the reclaim fund a genuine private sector body, with a power of direction from the Treasury? I asked the Minister that question and he said that it was. Has the Office for National Statistics agreed that this body, with this power of direction, will be classified to the private sector?