Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

The probing amendments of the noble Lord would prescribe that the lead Secretary of State in respect of the unclaimed assets scheme should be the same Secretary of State who is responsible for overseeing the National Lottery. However, I take the point that this is a probing amendment and that the noble Lord, quite rightly, wants a discussion on this issue. He has been keen enough to read the minutes of the Treasury Select Committee. I shall explain to this Committee our position. The main priority for distribution of funds in England will be youth services. It is the Government’s intention, therefore, that the Department for Children, Schools and Families takes the lead—I choose those words carefully—in issuing directions to Big as the relevant policy department. Big will be accountable ultimately to that Secretary of State for spending unclaimed assets. That will also ensure consistency with the 10-year youth strategy which the DCSF will be responsible for delivering. However, both noble Lords who have spoken in this debate have said that there are other interests within government, as set out in Clause 17. Our spending priorities for unclaimed assets of youth services, financial capability and inclusion, and social investment cut across the policy areas of a number of departments. There is nothing incredibly surprising about that. What is important is that government establish who takes the lead and establish, as they will, a working party of civil servants from across the relevant departments. In other words, a cross-cutting approach to the development of spending directions, which represents the interests of key departments, will inform the decision-making of the Secretary of State. Without being bound by it, I say that the departments that clearly have an interest in the priorities identified for distribution of funds include the DCSF, the Cabinet Office as far as it deals with the Office of the Third Sector, the DCLG, the DCMS and the Treasury—the noble Lord was spot on when he named them. It is intended that a working group of officials from those departments will be convened to develop draft spending directions to Big, including the split of assets between priorities, but someone has to make the final decision and that will be the Secretary of State as mentioned. The working group will be able to make firm recommendations only once it is clear how much will be available, although it could do some scenario planning based on certain thresholds. We would expect the terms of reference for that important working group to be confirmed early next year. Of course, the DCMS will have responsibility for ensuring that Big is a fit-for-purpose organisation for distributing lottery money, with the appropriate operating systems in place. We believe that the DCSF will be able to place considerable reliance on that. And of course it will be for each department to satisfy for itself that Big is distributing the funds for which it is responsible in accordance with its direction and, in so doing, is meeting its objectives. The answer to the noble Lord’s question about Northern Ireland is yes. The Secretary of State will take the lead and have the final say on that matter. I thought that the mood of the Committee was that it was very important that the lottery fund and unclaimed assets fund were dealt with separately by the Big Lottery Fund. I hope that there is no criticism, and I do not think that I have heard any, of the decision to make the lead Secretary of State a different one—in this case the Secretary of State in the Department for Children, Schools and Families. I end, I hope not too provocatively, by saying that it is after all one Government.