Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Wilson of Sedgefield) (Lab)

Before we move on to Back-Bench questions, let me respectfully say that they are Back-Bench questions, so we want questions and not statements. Bearing that in mind, I would ask the Conservatives to g

We are about to move on to the last group of amendments and we have 35 minutes to go. I hope we can finish this group before we finish at 8.45 pm. If we do not, unfortunately we will have to break mid

My Lords, before we start the debate on the first group, I remind the Committee of the rules on declaring interests. Noble Lords should declare any relevant financial interest the first time they spea

Noble Lords have made some very pertinent points. There is a great element of consensus in the Chamber today, and all the issues the noble Lord has just raised are ones we need to take into considerat

As far as rural banking is concerned, as I have said, 99% of the population are within three miles of a post office. We need to expand the role of banking hubs, but we also need to look at credit unio

The noble Baroness is absolutely right about the part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill that refers to credit unions. We want to expand the use of credit unions. About 1.5 million people acro