Member

Amendment 24B would establish a “reasonable” timeframe. In addition to the comments of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope, and the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, the debate widened into the Security Industry Authority as a whole. I hope that we will return to this in later groups. I can reassure the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, on the points he made about the preparation of the authority, the work and the guidance that it is going to undertake and the oversight by Home Office Ministers of that development. If he looks—as I know he will have done—at the impact assessment, he will see that the regulator’s projected costs include giving an additional 83 staff and £4.5 million per annum to the authority to exercise its duties.