Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

My Lords, I briefly associate myself with comments made by my noble friend about the restrictive nature of our consideration of some Bills under the Grand Committee procedure. As my noble friend stated, it restricts our ability to look at structural issues. My noble friend is particularly concerned that the reclaim fund should be involved in the activity of an individual seeking repayment of his or her money. That is not what the Government, banks or building societies appear to intend, so it is difficult to get that into this Bill. I say in support of my noble friend that the incentives for properly effecting repayments, if they are to be handled by the banks, are very weak—in fact, they are non-existent. Once the bank has handed over the dormant account money to the reclaim fund, the bank has no obligation in respect of repayment. We discussed that point in Committee. That would mean that when the banks handle repayments, they have no incentive to minimise them or calculate them correctly. My noble friend’s idea of transferring this responsibility to the reclaim fund has genuine merit in terms of getting the incentive structure right within the Bill. I hope that the Minister will carefully consider it.