Financial Stability

I join other Members in welcoming the Chancellor's statement, the scale of the action the Government have taken and the calibration of the risk involved. The Chancellor said that in return for Government support for the banks, the Government will be looking at executive pay, dividend payments and lending practices. Will they also keep an eye on the banks' investment practices, so that they do not get back into speculating on futures and commodity indices so that they fuel energy and food price rises in ways that we have all suffered from? Can he assure the House that no matter what it takes, this will never turn into the taxpayer being taken for whatever? To help in that regard, will he support the establishment of a special Committee of the House to oversee these exceptional measures—to oversee both how the banks use and respond to them, and the returns that come to the taxpayer?