Member

Section 38 of the 2023 Act was an inspirational bit of legislation for which the last Government deserve great credit. I believe it should be broadened whenever new circumstances arise. This Bill creates an important new power which is broadly drafted, as we discussed on the first day of Committee, and therefore lends itself to parliamentary scrutiny. The new power is in many ways analogous to the powers given to the PRA and the FCA via the 2023 Act. In that case, there was a huge repatriation of EU financial services legislation and the PRA and the FCA were given powers to set the detailed rules in this big new area without any direct parliamentary oversight. A positive link was made to the parliamentary committees so that they could oversee the use of the powers. This case is very similar. Another great big power will be given to the Bank which could be used in very different ways, so the parliamentary committees should have an interest in how it is used.