Banking Act 2009 (Bank Administration) (Modification for Application to Banks in Temporary Public Ownership) Regulations 2009

I thank the Minister for introducing these orders. He will be relieved to hear that I have only one point to raise on them because they are really much too technical for me. It takes us back to a point I raised on the earlier group of orders; namely, consultation. My point was there were draft statutory instruments available for the November consultation, but the process of consultation stopped being visible to Parliament. Very little consultation has been carried out on these orders. For the order relating to consequential amendments, the only consultation was within government and, as far as I can tell, there has been no consultation on the other two orders. The orders are highly technical, and it may well be that only insolvency experts and, possibly, the BBA would have had something to say on them, but it is the hallmark of good government to consult on draft instruments, especially when they are technical, even if the full three months that we normally expect for consultation could not have been met. So far as these orders are concerned, it is water under the bridge, and I am not going to object to them on the grounds of lack of consultation. However, I hope that the Minister will commit the Treasury to a more normal process for any further orders that are issued under the Banking Act or, indeed, more generally so that, even if they are highly technical orders of which few would understand the detail, the normal process of exposure to obtain the views of stakeholders is followed.