Lord Vaux of Harrowden (CB)

My Lords, I support the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, on her Amendment 29, to which I have added my name. The noble Baroness has already explained with her usual clarity the concerns that lie behind this group of amendments so I will try not to repeat what she said. The changes proposed by the Bill to the AML supervisory regime will move the AML elements of supervision from the relevant professional body to the FCA. This means that firms will now have to deal with two separate regulators rather than one: the FCA for AML and the professional body for everything else. It seems inevitable that this will have cost impacts for those firms even if, as the FCA argues, the regulatory rules themselves will not change. That is likely to be especially true for smaller firms. The impact assessment that accompanies the Bill on this section is, frankly, almost laughably poor, relying almost entirely on the statement that the AML rules themselves will not change. It does not address, in any meaningful way, the question of moving from one supervisor to two. It must, therefore, be sensible to carry out an assessment of what the impact of the changes will be on firms and to ensure that the costs remain proportionate to the benefits that the FCA and the Government argue will accrue, before going ahead with the changes. That is what Amendment 29 is looking to achieve. The Government are commendably keen to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses, so I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say on this. Does he agree that there is likely to be an increase in costs to firms from having to deal with two supervisors rather than one? How will he ensure that that is proportionate to any benefits that will arise?