Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

There is because, when this legislation becomes effective, these resources will flow to the reclaim fund where they have not been redirected to the investor. I accept that as far as the investor is concerned, but the other resources are directed to the reclaim fund and its carefully delineated priorities. Those resources are not available to be accessed by the Government from National Savings & Investments, and they currently either form part of the national debt or are used by the Government for other purposes. I understand what the noble Lord said—that there is a claim on this money that the Government must honour—but we are talking about a discrete set of resources, a great deal of which is not claimed at present because that is the nature of dormant accounts. That money would be directed to a new fund for purposes different from those for which it is presently used. I do not see what the problem is with that. The Government’s point of view is obvious: the money is a resource that is being reallocated to different priorities. The Government fully subscribe to two sets of priorities. The first is reuniting the money with the original owners. I accept entirely what the noble Baroness and the noble Lord said; namely, that the Government would then have to plug that gap either through borrowing from elsewhere or through taxation. However, the other part, which is not reclaimed, moves out of National Savings & Investments into a fund which, I admit, has different priorities. They are priorities in which the Government have had a clear say, but they are different from those which might have applied to the fund at the present time. The equity argument is clear; namely, that National Savings & Investments is a bank and it should certainly subscribe, and be committed, to reuniting dormant accounts with their owners. The point that I did not make earlier, and to which the noble Lord, Lord Higgins, referred, is that National Savings & Investments is part of the one-stop shop which is to be set up by the banks and building societies in the new year to facilitate the reuniting of dormant bank account holders with their money. National Savings & Investments recognises its obligations in those terms, but resources which are not reunited with the original account holders are a different matter so far as the Government are concerned, whereas the resources from dormant accounts which lie in banks are for the private purposes of the bank. There is a significant difference. The amendment puts together two organisations: one is private banks which presently use money that is held in dormant accounts for private purposes or which will in due course use them for the public good under narrowly defined objectives in the legislation; the other is National Savings & Investments, whose dormant resources are devoted to wider dimensions of the public good, as represented by the public debt or the Government’s expenditure.