Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

The Government are making very encouraging noises about my amendment. I think the Minister said that it was obvious that this was what banks would do and that they would be liable to criticism if they did not do it, but my point is that that is not what the Bill says. The Bill sets out criteria for dormancy, which, as I have been trying to tease out in this series of amendments, have lost touch with some common-sense roots. For example, if a bank account holder says, ““I don’t want to be part of this scheme””, he should not be. I am glad that the Minister agreed with that but it is not what the Bill says. That is the purpose of teasing out all these points in the amendments. The Bill needs to be able to cover not only the slightly more advanced things set out in subsections (1) and (2) but also the basics, such as what would happen if an account holder did not want to take part. What would happen if an account holder or a joint account holder told the bank that they did not think that the account should be treated as dormant until issues relating to the validity of the joint account were sorted out? What would happen if someone was out of the country and could not issue instructions? All these common-sense aspects of dormancy are nowhere to be found in the Bill, and that is why I have been teasing out these points in the amendments. I am sorry that the Minister has not seen fit simply to accept my common-sense amendment, as he was invited to do by the noble Lord, Lord Monson, whose support I greatly value, and I think that we will have to return to this whole aspect on Report. I had hoped that we would be able to dispense with many of these issues during Committee but clearly we cannot. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.