Baroness Neville-Rolfe (Con)

My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for his response and his detailed explanation of how Clause 1 is framed. I am also grateful to the other noble Lords who have contributed to the debate—the noble Baronesses, Lady Bowles and Lady Altmann, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Manchester—on the recasting of consumer protection law, which is very important to us all, and the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, on mortgage prisoners. I would describe that as a sorry tale. We remain of the view that, when this process of recasting takes place, Parliament and industry must have a practical mechanism through which they can exercise oversight and make such representations as they need to make, such as those that we have heard today, on how the powers are used. The system would not be undermined by that; it is a first-occasion proposal. That is what Amendment 93 and its consequentials seek to provide. It is a workable and proportionate mechanism which allows the Government to achieve their broader objective of introducing a more flexible regulatory framework, but not wholly at the expense of scrutiny, transparency and democratic accountability. We should not be signing away any rights and protections without knowing what will replace them. I am very grateful to the Minister for engaging with us on our concerns. I do not think that the delegated power memorandum meets them, because it does not explain what all these new powers in these areas are going to be used for, including consumer credit. There must be a meaningful mechanism to acquaint the House with how the powers are exercised and to ensure that regulatory officials turn up to the committee at the convenience of the committee and are able to answer questions on a suitable report on how these important changes are taking place. We support the general drift of these changes, as the Minister knows well, but we are worried about accountability. I am happy to have further discussions but, if need be, I plan to test the opinion of the House when we reach Amendment 93 on Wednesday. I beg leave to withdraw Amendment 1.