Financial Services Bill

My Lords, I salute the keenness with which the noble Baroness greets the council, in that she wants the dates well in advance and scheduled as early as possible. Of course we share the same ambition for early scheduling of quarterly meetings, and the terms of reference indicate that they should be scheduled well in advance. We have a little concern about a statutory requirement to schedule them 12 months in advance. After all, there might be global economic or political events that make the proposed dates difficult. We do not believe that a statutory requirement is appropriate. The terms of reference are a more appropriate vehicle for such procedural matters. If the noble Baroness persists and indicates in her wind-up that she feels very strongly about this, I would recognise that the terms of reference could have a firmer commitment and we might reconsider this in drafting the final version, with the intention of a more significant form of schedule than the one that dissatisfies the noble Baroness at the moment.