My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Sassoon, for what he has said; it sounds like an interesting and potentially successful solution, but I am still quite confused as to whether we will get to the right conclusion on time. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Mitchell, and congratulate him on tabling his amendment, to which several of us have added our name. I am glad to have been able to hear the comments of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Durham, because he gained great expertise in financial matters in his career before he joined the Church.
There has been plenty of support for the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Mitchell, from other areas around the country, from councillors and from MPs. For my own part, having sat through the Welfare Reform Bill, with its drastic consequences for the poor and disabled, and subsequently witnessed for the same group the extent to which voluntary legal aid and advice services were being curtailed so that they were not getting the help that they had had in the past, my first reaction to the amendment was that it was far too weak. However, I have listened to what people have said and accept that consumers without bank accounts or with no credit history—that is some 25% of credit users and 23% of payday loan users, I was amazed to find—have no choice when facing a financial crisis but to resort to these loans. Nor should we forget, as has been pointed out by the noble Lord, Lord Mitchell, and by Which? reports, that some 78% of payday loans are used for basic essentials such as food or household bills. So if these organisations—I am tempted to call them by less pleasant names—are to stay, undoubtedly the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Mitchell, will be a huge help. It may be that it will be a reserve weapon, as it were, but it will nevertheless be a very important weapon. I hope that I can feel confident at the end of our discussions. I want reassurance from the noble Lord, Lord Mitchell, that he is sufficiently satisfied with what he has heard, that otherwise he will bring back further amendments at a later stage, and that that will be acceptable to the whole House.