Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

The £250 million is not my figure but that of the noble Lord, Lord Hamilton, in his proposal. We are aware of the fact that there are uncertainties about the amount of resources available. We know that we are in a position where both youth services and financial inclusion issues can be immediately addressed. We have some technical issues to resolve with the social investment wholesaler. They are not so obstructive as to suggest that the concept is unviable—far from it—but we cannot pretend that we can necessarily get it off the ground at the same time as the two other expenditure areas, for those reasons. I emphasise that it is a concept that we want to see working. The difficulty is—and I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Shutt, will give the Government credit for this—that we have a problem answering questions about the first year, 2009, and even as far as 2010, but we have to make provisions in the Bill that will obtain over a decade or more, particularly when we are talking about the establishment of an institution that will need longevity in order to fulfil its remit. I am merely indicating that at this point there are strong reasons why we have identified two priorities upon which early action can be taken against an unknown sum of money, and we are making provision in the Bill for the third concept to be activated as soon as we have resolved the issues.