Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

I am grateful to both noble Lords who have spoken. As we are talking about a body that is being set up to achieve goals to which we all subscribe—to deal with money that it does not own, for which its owners cannot be located, and one that will have to work in the full glare of public accountability—I should have thought it entirely reasonable for the Government to make it clear that they expect very high standards from the company, which should have due regard to the issue of reasonable costs. I shall not define them here; that would be asking too much of a body that is to be developed by the private sector. It seems to me entirely reasonable that we should seek to establish that this body will work within reasonably tight and responsible parameters. It has not been established whether the company will be limited by shares or by guarantee. The Bill is not prescriptive on that point, and I am not sure that the noble Baroness would expect it to be prescriptive about the creation of the private company in those terms. However, it is clear that we want to be sure that the company will act for the purposes identified in the Bill, using money from the dormant accounts for the public benefits identified. As I indicated earlier, we expect the fund to be governed responsibly. What is reasonable will be a matter for the directors and members to decide but, ultimately, it will be a transparent organisation operating with great concern for the public interest. As I indicated earlier—although I do not want to go back over that ground again—the Treasury would have a reserve power if an outrageous position developed. Noble Lords opposite, including the noble Baroness, said that this power was scarcely necessary because the company would act responsibly, so I do not have to re-emphasise that point now. I have no doubt that the company will follow a proper model of responsibility. However, due to the unique significance of this company, we want to emphasise that it is there to manage a scheme of resources which are not its own but are dormant accounts where it is not possible to locate the owners. The resources are directed towards the benefit of the wider public and it is only right that we should be concerned that the costs of the company are kept within reasonable parameters.