Financial Services Bill

My Lords, it is greatly to the credit of the noble Lord, Lord Mitchell, that he has not ducked the challenge of balancing the accessibility and availability of credit with its affordability and the terms on which it is made available. A number of noble Lords have made it clear, as indeed has the noble Baroness, that the availability and accessibility of credit is important. My noble friend on the Front Bench made a powerful intervention; he indicated a number of ways in which the amendment could be got around because of the gaps in it. It is important that we get this right and make it bullet-proof. For example, some of his thoughts about—if I heard him right—making a contract unenforceable under certain circumstances would add a great deal of power to this. I hope very much that we will be able to have a period of reflection and ensure that the unintended consequences that could come about, as evidenced by my noble friend’s speech, are avoided and we get something that stands the test of time.