My Lords, I am grateful to all those who have spoken—and, indeed, to many others who might have spoken but who exercised restraint on this matter. I am also very grateful to my noble friend the Minister for giving, for the first time, an actual timetable for this legislation. A number of queries have provoked soothing words and not much else. We now have a timetable, although it is not happening as fast as many of us would like—but he has explained in some detail the difficulties involved in setting up this register.
I would have been a little more impressed had this been the first time that this issue was raised. We are talking about an undertaking by the Government in 2016, so with respect I should have thought that much of this could have been done a great deal earlier. For example, why do we need to commission an inquiry into the danger of inward investment being put off from coming to this country when the whole idea is to stop inward investment of corrupt proceeds from Russia and the like? I found that one of the less impressive parts of the reassurance given by my noble friend.
My noble friend cites the difficulty of setting up the register and uses the fact that the previous register of persons of significant control took four years to set up. My response to that is that, presumably, a great deal of the work that was done in setting up that register would enable a great deal of piggy-backing to go on in setting up this register—something of a dry run, I should have thought. However, despite that minor carping on my part, I want this legislation to succeed and I want the obscenity of having our property market corrupted to be stopped—and I want it done effectively, as I am sure other noble Lords do.
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In those circumstances, and given the pressures on the legislative timetable, I appreciate that this will take time. I appreciate also the Bill team’s assurances, both to me directly and through the Minister, of the things that must be done to ensure that it is as successful as possible. Of course, we all know that no system of enforcing what are, in effect, criminal offences is 100% successful, and part of me says that the best should not be the enemy of the good. However, we are, I am told, a world leader—and rightly so—in this field and I look forward to this register setting an example for the rest of the world, as was indeed envisaged by former Prime Minister David Cameron as long ago as 2016. I am grateful for the commitment by my noble friend regularly to update the House on the progress of this legislation. I will keep the Government up to the mark on this, I assure him. I am also grateful for his indication that he will embody this with a further amendment at Third Reading.
Although I am disappointed by the lack of progress so far, I accept the Government’s commitment to take this matter further. I understand the complexities involved and it is in those circumstances that I am content to withdraw this amendment.