Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

These amendments are broadly concerned with the requirements that will be imposed on providers of saving gateway accounts. Amendment 22 would remove the Treasury's power to require in regulations that a provider must pay interest on a credit balance held in a saving gateway account. I can assure noble Lords that we do not intend to impose a requirement on providers to pay interest on account balances. That is our settled view and we have no intention of moving from that position, but we think that it is sensible to retain some flexibility so that, if the position were to change in the future, a change could be made without recourse to primary legislation. The Economic Secretary said in the other place that there would be full consultation before introducing any such change, and I am very happy to repeat that commitment to the Committee today. Amendment 23 would allow regulations to prohibit a provider levying charges on saving gateway accounts. My response here is straightforward. The Bill already provides a broad power to impose requirements on accounts and the draft regulations that have been published make clear that providers may not make withdrawals from a person’s account, by way of charges or otherwise. I refer here to Clause 4(2)(c) and draft regulation 10(2)(e). I hope this provides the confirmation the noble Baroness is seeking. I listened with care to the observation of the noble Lord, Lord Newby, about what is contained in the Bill and what is covered by regulations. This is a judgment call that has to be made in these situations. The Government welcome the report from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. It states that, ""the principal features of the new accounts … are largely discernible from the provision in the Bill itself, with many of the delegated powers intended to provide necessary flexibility in fine-tuning the scheme"." I hope that the noble Baroness will seek leave to withdraw the amendment.