My Lords, I thank the Minister for that very full reply. As I indicated, as far as the general issue of co-operation between the CMA and the sector regulators is concerned, while his amendments do not go quite all the way and omit one or two things from my amendments, they represent a major advance and a clear requirement on the CMA, so when we come to them I certainly will not press my amendments dealing with that area. The one oddity about his reply was that, in terms of assessing whether there was a need for the Secretary of State to intervene, the concurrency report which is required under the earlier section would not be relevant or detailed enough. I would
have thought that the whole power to produce a concurrency report was so that it would identify where there were some serious failings that needed to be addressed and might need to be addressed in a fairly draconian way by the Secretary of State handing the power over the CMA, so I find that lack of linkage a bit odd. On the other hand, the totality of what the Minister said about co-operation and the process that you have to go through before you use the powers in Clause 46 is a very positive move, and I think him for it.
As far as relations with the FCA are concerned, the Minister referred to a memorandum of understanding between the two. My recollection and, I think, that of my noble friend Lady Hayter is that during the passage of the Financial Services Bill the Government, in the form of the Treasury rather than BIS, were deeply resistant to us putting in the requirement that there should be some co-operation between the new FCA and the then competition authorities. There is no reference in this Bill to a memorandum of understanding. The Minister referred to existing powers, but with effect in both directions in terms of handing things from the FCA to the CMA and the CMA coming back to double-check the way in which the FCA is carrying out its powers in relation to the financial sector. I think this omission is significant. I am worried about it, and if anybody out there knew about it, they also would be worried. Whereas this new super-duper competition authority has clear powers and clear relationships with all sorts of markets, the one market where it is not clear that it has a relationship, a power and an ability to second-guess is the financial services area, the one area which everybody has been worried about for at least the past five years. That I find odd. While there may be the odd reference here or in preceding legislation that helps, I think the Government probably need to have another look at this, but tonight I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.