Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

I am afraid that for once the noble Lord, Lord Shutt, is wrong. The reclaim fund will be required to publish information, at individual institution level, about which institutions are participating in the scheme, the amount of money transferred into the scheme and the amount of money reunited with account holders. Further, it will also be required to publish the amounts it transfers to BIG. Under company law, too, the reclaim fund will also be required to prepare and file annual accounts with Companies House that may be accessed by all interested parties. We believe that for the fund to be obliged to publish details of non-participating banks and building societies would require it to take on an onerous monitoring role, reducing the amounts available for distribution, albeit perhaps by a small degree. Such a provision would greatly add to administrative costs and reduce the amounts available for distribution. Publishing these details is not the role of the reclaim fund. Providing the lists of those who are participating will make it fairly obvious who is not. The case has been put extremely well, and briefly, by the noble Baroness and I am particularly sorry not to be able to go along with the noble Lord, Lord Shutt, on this occasion.