Baroness Sherlock (Lab)

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Finn, for that constructive response, and to other noble Lords for giving us the benefit of the doubt here. I can assure my noble friend Lord Davies that the government amendments were tabled a week ago, as is the requirement. If it gives him any encouragement, they have been seen by UK Finance, which welcomed them. We were seeking to respond to concerns that were raised. I will pick up on a couple of points made by noble Lords. I can tell the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, that we are talking here specifically about action in relation to the recovering of debt from debtors. I want to reassure the House that this does not mean that a DWP debtor will not be aware that action might be taken. Clause 91 of the Bill requires the debtor to be told in advance, in writing, that bank statements may be obtained without further warning to assess whether money can be taken directly from their bank account via a DDO if they do not contact DWP to discuss repayment. In response to other queries, these measures do not stop a bank telling a debtor if no action is proposed. In response to the noble Baroness, Lady Finn, we believe that three months is enough notice for DWP and PSFA to reach a conclusion, either that we issue a pre-deduction notice or a DDO, if we need it. We believe that that is sufficient, which is why that number is there. Somebody—and I am afraid I have already forgotten who; do not be my age—asked what happens if an order has been suspended for two years. It cannot be restarted: it will be legally revoked. Where appropriate, the process can be started again from the beginning. For direct deduction orders, that would mean fresh bank statements had to be obtained to carry out a current affordability assessment rather than relying on ones from the beginning, and all relevant correspondence would have to be sent out again. Where a suspended order is subsequently revoked by DWP or PSFA, a notice will be sent to the debtor and any other relevant parties, informing them that this has happened. If an order were revoked and DWP or PSFA were no longer pursuing an action, in the case of a DDO, DWP or PSFA would notify the account holder and the bank in writing, setting out that the order has been revoked. Debtors will also be told if their order has been suspended and an equivalent process applies to PSFA in respect of deduction from earnings orders. The noble Baroness, Lady Finn, made an important point about deputies being in place. That is absolutely right. I can reassure her that DWP has clear processes for flagging vulnerability and making sure that that is taken into account. But obviously, in a sense, once the deputy is in place they have the obligations that would originally have been there for the debtor, so the debt has to be pursued in the appropriate way. I hope that has answered the questions noble Lords have raised. Again, I hope it shows the Government’s willingness to engage and to be constructive in amending the Bill where possible. I hope that those clarifications will reassure noble Lords that the protections in the Bill operate as intended and that we will work effectively with our banking partners. As such, I hope noble Lords will support these amendments.