Baroness Noakes (Con)

My Lords, I have Amendments 36, 39 and 42 in this group. I thank my noble friend Lady Neville-Rolfe for adding her name to them. They seek to achieve, through slightly different drafting, what the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles of Berkhamsted, sought with her Amendments 35 and 41. In my view, proportionality is the most important of the regulatory principles, and we try to elevate it above the other regulatory principles. I regret the downgrading of regulatory principles in general under Clause 17, but I am glad that the Government have recognised that they went too far on proportionality and have amendments in this group effectively preserving the status quo for proportionality. We have not achieved an upgrading of proportionality in the regulatory hierarchy, but we have at least protected it from being downgraded. As the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles of Berkhamsted, said a moment ago, the Financial Services Regulation Committee will now have to bear some of the burden. We will need to make sure that the regulators do not ignore the other important regulatory principles. The noble Baroness mentioned transparency, and I agree with her on that. I also single out the principle that consumers need to take responsibility for their own decisions. The committee will certainly call out the regulator if necessary.