Lord Markham (Con)

I thank noble Lords for this debate and the Minister for her response. While my amendment was anoraky by nature, I think we would all agree that the other amendments tabled by my noble friend Lord Moynihan are quite serious. As the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, mentioned, this is something that happens in all other regulatory environments, and other regulators manage to cater for that in exactly the same situation. What my noble friend Lord Moynihan is suggesting is not, if the deadline has passed, that an owner is deemed suitable for ever. They will be deemed suitable only until the regulator is able to get round and opine. It would be a pretty silly thing to do for an owner to drag their feet and be awkward, for them to be allowed to do it only to be removed a few months later. That would be a big waste of money for them, and it would be completely illogical for an owner to try to game the system in that way. So I am afraid that do not quite understand, and I think other noble Lords share in this. I ask the Minister to go back and think more on that, because it has got to be the right case. As the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, pointed out, in a situation where the regulator is not able to pass judgement through their own incompetence, it is the owner, who might be perfectly suitable, who loses out. So I would be grateful if we could consider that further—but at this point I am happy to withdraw.