I think I should just sit down now. The noble Lord is very kind.
I will deal with some of the points raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, and then I will come back to the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe. The noble Baroness asked whether a sukuk could be an asset-backed security as they are not always a sovereign bond. That is exactly right. We keep our regulatory framework under constant review to make sure that it can adapt to emerging market practice. As for it becoming difficult to comprehend, this is not an easy task given its size and complexity. The Government have no current plans to do so, but will revisit the topic later.
The noble Baroness asked about compliance with Islamic principles, which the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, also touched on. As secular entities, UK regulators do not operate on Islamic compliance. We set the framework to allow consumers to decide what to do with this. We operate on the basis of no barriers but no favours for these types of instruments.
6.15 pm
The noble Baroness also asked about the position on student finance, which is an interesting question. The Department for Education is looking at this. I do not have an exact status for it at the present, but this will be a helpful opportunity to give the department a nudge in that direction and to draw its attention to the instrument, which I hope will be approved by your Lordships today.
The final question was from the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, who asked how this might work in practice. The reality is that the instrument expands the definition of AFIBs to allow these to be admissible for trading on additional types of financial trading venues, known as MTFs or OTFs. These are markets for the issuing of trading of debt securities, which are regulated on platforms operated. The London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market and International Securities Market are examples of markets in which these instruments would operate.