Building Societies (Financial Assistance) Order 2008

My questions on the order which—as both the noble Baroness and the noble Lord said—was predicted, again largely relate to timing. Indeed, the noble Baroness has asked most of the questions, so I will not repeat them. The phrasing of the Explanatory Memorandum is slightly alarming in that it states that the order has to be introduced as soon as possible as an important contingency measure, so there has been no time for consultation. As the noble Baroness said, it should, first, have been possible to start a consultation considerably sooner than today, because it is not a particularly long order. Secondly, that raises the spectre that one of the major building societies might be in difficulty. Because the terms of the order are such that only those building societies which, if they got into real difficulties, might have an effect on the financial system as a whole, are covered, the number of building societies that are in fact potential beneficiaries of this provision is small. The inevitable conclusion, on reading the terms of the order, is that the Government, the Bank, or both, are worried about one or more of the societies. So, as the noble Baroness said, it would be extremely helpful to have some clarity on that, if only in the form of reassurance. I suspect that this is one of those cases where, had there been consultation, given the nature of the order, there would not have been a huge raft of criticism. However, the way in which the consultation, or lack of it, has been dealt with is a cause for concern. The other point that I wish to raise was also mentioned by the noble Baroness and concerns the banking reform Bill. My understanding three months ago, when we were discussing Northern Rock, was that the Bill was going to be brought forward significantly sooner than is now the case. I thought that the Government had said that it would be brought forward in this Session. Can the Minister explain why there has been such a delay that it is possible that the Bill will not be brought forward until at least 12 months from now? Certainly all the language used by Ministers implied that we could expect it before the summer.