Financial Services Bill

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 10 in this group. Both amendments concern a consultation on the statement of the Council for Financial Stability’s functions required by Clause 1(5). Amendment 9 was also suggested to us by the Law Society of Scotland. Under subsection (8), the Treasury is required to consult, and the Minister has referred to that. However, the consultation extends only to the FSA and the Bank of England. My amendment widens the consultees to include, ""other persons who the Treasury consider to have an interest in the statement"." There is a certain inwardness about the Council for Financial Stability: its three members are the top men in the Treasury, the FSA and the Bank of England; and the things that the council has to consider are reports written by the three bodies, as set out in Clause 2. A statement about the council’s functions is to be prepared by the Treasury in consultation only with the other two. The matters referred to in subsection (6) as candidates for inclusion in the published statement in fact fall into two categories. Paragraphs (c) and (d) of subsection (6) deal with the council’s procedures and things that would facilitate the exercise of its functions. I do not think that anyone outside the threesome would have an interest in that. However, paragraph (a) allows the Treasury to specify particular objectives for the council to meet, and paragraph (b) deals with specific matters to which the council must have regard in exercising its functions. On the assumption that the council will in practice do a bit more than the monitoring and co-ordinating that the draft statement refers to, I can think of a lot of people who would have an interest in how those issues would be dealt with in the statement. Many people and firms have direct and indirect interests in how the actions that could result from the deliberations of the council would impact on them. The statement would benefit from scrutiny by people other than the inner circle of the Treasury, the FSA and the Bank of England. Amendment 10 is also eminently reasonable, with transparency in mind. Earlier, the noble Lord, Lord Myners, told us a lot about how these new arrangements would be transparent. My amendment requires the Treasury to publish responses to its consultation under subsection (8). The Minister will be aware that it is good practice to publish consultation responses, although I am sure that he is also aware that the degree of enthusiasm with which the Government embrace that tends to vary with the degree of support shown for the Government’s line. Amendment 10 would be valid regardless of whether the Government accepted my Amendment 9. Even if only the Treasury and the FSA were consulted, their responses would be of interest to the outside world; but if Amendment 9 were accepted, it would be even more important that the Treasury published the views expressed. It is normal for the Government to set out their response to consultation responses, and that is often interesting in its own right and can of course trigger parliamentary involvement, more usually through a Select Committee in another place. I hope the Minister will agree that consultation on a wider basis and transparency about consultation are virtues to be pursued and that he will agree with these amendments. I beg to move.