Financial Services Bill

My Lords, the noble Baroness has made a good case for Amendments 16 and 24, and I propose to accept them. On Amendment 18, she pressed us on whether the Government felt secure about the issue of commercial confidentiality. I am grateful to her for that amendment and the chance to reinforce our position. We are cautious about the council providing, on a one-off or a continuing basis, the explanation of what it considers is meant by "commercially confidential". A very high-level explanation is unlikely to add much to what is in the Bill, while a detailed explanation risks being insufficiently comprehensive and raising the prospect that it would have to be expanded to cover specific pieces of information that are not covered by the existing one. That would not be a desirable state of affairs. In this context, the definition of "commercially confidential" is clear. Many discussions of the council will involve the position of specific firms, and much of the information, and those discussions, may well be commercially confidential and be made available to the council in that expectation. I accept that without a precise, on-the-record definition there is a degree of subjectivity, but we consider that to be necessary. The wriggle room provided allows some sensible judgment to be exercised, and to avoid the forced release of information that could be unhelpful to the firm concerned and therefore ultimately to wider financial stability. This is an area where it is right for the balance to be struck; I think that the noble Baroness was indicating that she understood that. We think that it needs to be struck in favour of not disclosing information, at least until we are satisfied that publishing it would not be prejudicial to any commercial interest. I understand the point that the noble Baroness makes about how emphatic we could be on this issue. We are asking here for some element of flexibility and wriggle room, because we cannot predict all circumstances or where the commercial confidentiality of a particular organisation might be compromised. That is why I would like her to withdraw her Amendment 18, against a background in which I hope that she will recognise the generosity of the Government’s spirit in accepting the other two amendments.