Lord Holmes of Richmond (Con)

My Lords, it is a pleasure to speak in this group and, indeed, to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer. There is a thread which unites all the amendments in this group: they all make sense, they are all clear and the Government should accept them. Before I talk about the amendments in my name and the ones I have signed, I echo the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, around child trust funds and follow her in acknowledging the great work that the noble Lords, Lord Blunkett and Lord Young of Cookham, in particular have done for years on this issue. The words of the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, are particularly pertinent to this point. He was the Minister in charge at the time, in a Labour Government, and he has said things on numerous occasions in this House along the lines that this was never the intention. If this was never intended government policy from a Labour Government, then we now have a Labour Government. Would this not be the ideal opportunity to stop this being government policy and to make the changes set out in this amendment—and, if not to make the changes along the lines of these words, for the department to come up with some words of its own to make this change? A review is not the solution. We know the issues; they have been well set out over years. We have the opportunity, with this Bill, to resolve the issue and to make such a difference, not just to the 80,000 or so individuals who have those trust funds but to the hundreds of thousands of family members, friends and communities who are adversely affected by this current position for want of government action, which could make this change and, through that, make such a difference. I turn to my amendments on financial inclusion and the role of the various regulators. The regulators have a lot of obligations put upon them. I suggest just this: how can we have, in the United Kingdom, a financial services regulator which does not have clear responsibility for financial inclusion and a clear obligation to report on what it has done to advance it, specifying in detail all those affected? Financial inclusion—and, indeed, the adverse, financial exclusion—is not just a matter of the same people having the same effects and suffering the same exclusion. It is specific to older people, to disabled people, to those in certain socioeconomic groups and to those in certain geographies. Specific solutions and a strategy which incorporates all that and puts it into an operational road map are required if we are to get behind solving financial inclusion. We have a Financial Stability Board, but I argue that you cannot have financial stability if you do not have effective, sustainable financial inclusion. It may not be measured, because the adverse impacts are often in other government departments and other parts of the state. But be in no doubt: when you gross up all the costs, implications and consequences of financial exclusion, that is financial instability, not just for individuals but for communities and for our country. The financial regulators, among others, should take a leading role to get after this pernicious problem of financial exclusion, which has dogged our society for decades, blighted lives, impacted individuals and had an impact, when all put together, on what the Government constantly—and rightly—go on about in terms of growth. Well, if they want growth then financially including individuals right across this country would be a fine place to start.