Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for explaining his amendment so succinctly. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that charities may reclaim directly from the reclaim fund money that they are owed as a result of charitable legacies. We do not believe that it is appropriate to give charities the right to claim repayment of an account independently of the original executors of the deceased person’s estate. Where an estate has been administered but other assets such as a bank account subsequently come to light, perhaps several years later, we believe that the proper process is for the original executors of the will to take responsibility for collecting and distributing the assets in accordance with the terms of the will. If a customer dies, the right that that customer had to be repaid their money by their bank will pass, under the law of England and Wales, to their personal representatives who are the executors, or to the administrators of the estate if the person has died intestate. Different law and terminology apply in Scotland. The executors or administrators are responsible for claiming the money from the bank and subsequently distributing it to the deceased person’s heirs. The heirs may of course include charities to which a legacy has been bequeathed. We recognise that there have been concerns about whether very old or historic accounts or accounts of deceased account holders can be transferred into the scheme and whether the heirs of the original holders of the account may reclaim the money. In many cases the bank will simply not know whether the customer is still alive. I would like to clear up any confusion. I would like to make it clear that the legal right to repayment of a deceased individual’s account passes directly to the executor of the will. It does not pass directly to third parties, such as the relatives, friends or charities who stand to inherit according to the terms of a will. It is the responsibility of the executor to collect in the assets and to make payments in accordance with the terms of an individual’s will. That is our intention and it should remain the case under the dormant accounts scheme. In other words, existing inheritance law will not be affected. It is not our intention to make changes to existing inheritance legislation in this Bill by, for example, enabling charities to seek repayment of money directly from a bank without proceeding through the usual channel of the original executors or where necessary seeking the appropriate new form of grant or probate. Before closing, I should point out that executors will be able to search for lost accounts using the industry’s new one-stop shop website to which the noble Lord referred. Charities as legitimate heirs should of course receive their legacy income. Personal representatives also will be able to search the website on the owner’s behalf. For those reasons, it would not be right to change inheritance law as a consequence of the Bill. I therefore invite the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.