Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

My Lords, this amendment increases the parliamentary scrutiny of the use of the regulation-making powers provided by the Bill. As noble Lords may know, most of the Bill’s delegated powers will be subject to the affirmative procedure on their first use and the negative procedure on subsequent uses. That will allow appropriate parliamentary scrutiny of the scheme’s details that will be introduced, but also the flexibility to make minor or technical changes to the scheme. As the Bill stands there are four exceptions, where every use of a power will be subject to the affirmative procedure. These are the three delegated powers that relate to eligibility for the saving gateway and the power for regulations to set the match rate. The delegated powers relate to central features of the saving gateway and so it is right that any changes should be subject to full parliamentary scrutiny. The noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, proposed in Grand Committee that several further powers should also be subject to the affirmative procedure. My noble friend Lord Davies and I agreed to consider the points carefully. As a result, the amendment would make a further three regulation-making powers subject to the affirmative procedure on each use, rather than just on their first use. They are the powers to set the monthly deposit limit, set the maturity period that we discussed earlier and finally to set the number of accounts that people can hold, either at the same time or in their lifetime. Having considered the matter closely, I agree with the noble Baroness that changes in these areas could affect the cost of the saving gateway relatively significantly and that the affirmative procedure is appropriate. I hope that noble Lords will welcome the increased parliamentary scrutiny of the Bill’s powers. I beg to move.