My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, for his very gracious welcome to this amendment, which, as I said before, stems from an amendment that he originally proposed. I will just confirm to the noble Lord, and indeed your Lordships’ House, that we are in discussions with the Cabinet Office regarding the future operation of the National Fraud Initiative and the commencement
of the relevant parts of the Bill that are required to ensure the safe continuation of the commission’s data-matching exercises. This is something that is very important and I can confirm that this will continue when the National Fraud Initiative moves to sit with the Cabinet Office. The enactment of the further purpose which we have been discussing tonight is not required to support the transition of the National Fraud Initiative but, as we have identified through the course of the Bill, it is a useful addition to the potential powers for which exercises can be undertaken. It will allow the national fraud initiative to undertake the ad hoc data-matching exercises that it does at present under the Audit Commission’s wider powers once it moves over to the Cabinet Office in 2015. The addition of this potential extension also fits well with the Cabinet Office’s overarching remit, covering fraud, error and debt.
As to the noble Lord’s question about timescales, at present, we do not have a draft timeline for the introduction of such powers should the Cabinet Office determine that it intends to bring them forward. However, I hope that I have been able, through the introduction of this amendment, to give the noble Lord the reassurance that the extension of these powers will be possible at such time that the Government decide to bring forward these regulations.