I am grateful to all noble Lords for their contributions to the debate, and it would be helpful if I could respond to a few points. First, under my amendment both the FCA and the PRA would need a supervisory board. Indeed, if I were redesigning the entire regulatory architecture in the UK, every regulatory body would have a supervisory board, because that is the only way of putting ordinary people, who are practised upon, inside the organisation, to check the conduct of executive boards and reshape the organisational culture, which has given us such problems.
The amendment does not duplicate in any way whatever what any parliamentary committee or review board might do. The supervisory board would simply be engaged in day-to-day strategic oversight. Those people would be in the organisation on a permanent basis, observing, requiring reports, making recommendations and in many ways hoping to prevent the major scandals that we read about later—often some years later. It has been suggested that such regulatory architecture would be cumbersome and expensive. My response, as always, is, “What do you think the cost of the status quo is?” How many more banking crashes can we afford? How many more London Capital & Finances, how many more Connaughts, and other scandals, can we afford? We simply cannot afford them.
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The Minister referred to how the FCA and the PRA are summoned to appear in front of parliamentary bodies—I am well aware of that. Of course, they are incredibly well coached by lawyers and PR people as to what words to say. Indeed, I have seen those things in action, even right down to what colour of suit and tie to wear. That does not amount to a scrutiny of their daily conduct. Of course, regular reports are produced, but we all know that reports are the outcome of a particular kind of politics. If we were to look at many financial enterprises’ accounts, we would not find much by way of admission about, for example, tax avoidance or money laundering, because those things are entirely filtered out. Many of those reports are ritualistic. I suggest that we need to penetrate those rituals to change the culture. That is the main point of the amendment.
Nevertheless, I am encouraged by the Minister’s comment that the Government will possibly think about the issues which have been raised today. My feeling is that these problems will not go away and that we need to insert ordinary people inside the organisations. I hope that will happen perhaps within my lifetime. For the time being, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.