Banking (Special Provisions) Bill

I apologise if I have contributed to the raggedness of the discussion, but important issues have been raised. However, perhaps I should reduce the temperature by moving on to other points. Some very important amendments were tabled that, unfortunately, were not discussed today. I hope that they will be debated tomorrow and when we come back on Thursday. One of the more important amendments related to the Bill's implications for competition policy, and I think that hon. Members of all parties acknowledge that potentially serious difficulties could arise as a result of the nature of Northern Rock's ability to compete for deposits and mortgages, and in wholesale markets. Although some mechanism must be established to manage that, it is equally clear that the regulatory body, the FSA, does not have the necessary powers. It is also clear that the Office of Fair Trading—the body that deals with competition policy—should be referred to explicitly in the Bill in order to resolve those specific questions. The other important matter that we did not get around to discussing was new clause 2, which deals with freedom of information. One of the most appalling problems so far is that we have been unable to get access to basic information about how the Government and the Bank of England have operated hitherto. Information will be even more difficult to access now, because I understand that the new public company will be excluded from the freedom of information provisions. Along with other hon. Members from all parties, I have been trying to find out how much the Government, via the Bank of England, have lent to Northern Rock. We have had to study the Bank of England's weekly accounts, which are not entirely clear. I once asked for a meeting with the Governor to try and find out what was going on, and I was treated rather like an armed robber who wanted to inspect the gold in the vaults. It was impossible to get anywhere near asking the questions that I wanted to ask, but the problem is that information has become even more controlled and even less accessible. That is something that must be dealt with properly. Those of us who have been trying to follow the saga properly know that information has not been coming from the Government but from the BBC business correspondent and from leaks from the various bidders against each other. That is how we have kept abreast of developments. The Government have been a closed book. There has been no access to information. That is why we need to build into the Bill provisions to create much more transparency than has existed so far.