Financial Services Bill

My Lords, I start by thanking my noble friends Lord Hodgson, Lord Stewartby and Lord Higgins for their support for this amendment. The noble Lord, Lord Newby, again raised his concerns that these Committee days should be used to discuss the bits of the Bill that the noble Lord thinks are important. As he is aware, we do not yet know when Parliament will be dissolved. Until we know that, we do not have an end time and do not know how many days we will sit in Committee. There is a working assumption that this may be the last or the penultimate day in Committee, but if there is not an election in May, we could sit for many happy days in Committee on this Bill. If the Government wish to focus on clauses to which they attach real importance, it is for them to propose the deletion of other clauses. Otherwise, so far as these Benches are concerned, we will scrutinise this Bill in the normal way and not make any assumptions about an election, or otherwise. There is a difference of view between myself and the Minister in what he said about my amendment. The noble Lord emphasised how the minutes will record who said what and the views of the attendees, and that everything will be clear and open. My amendment is rather narrower. It says that the minutes should record what the members of the Council for Financial Stability said, not what any Tom, Dick or Harry who turned up to the meeting said. Of course, I am well aware that they are not any Tom, Dick or Harry but all fantastically important people, but the point is that the minutes do not differentiate between the members of the Council for Financial Stability, which is one of the points that I drew out in my opening remarks. However, it would not be worth pursuing that particular debate this evening, so although we may return to it later, I beg leave to withdraw. Amendment 15 withdrawn. Amendment 16 Moved by