Contributions
1,280 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (Second sitting)There is indeed scope, but there is also interplay with other expected reviews to which the UK Investment Bank will be subject. While I oppose, fairly, all the amendments put…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (Second sitting)I thank both the well-meaning Members—my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire and the hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead—who seek to get the right interval of…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (Second sitting)The hon. Member sort of took the words out of my mouth. We will expect the UK Infrastructure Bank to make the regional nature of its investments clear. It has done so to date, and…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (Second sitting)I was going to say something helpful, but of course I will give way. Hopefully it will re-occur to me in a moment.22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (Second sitting)I make the same point again. The fact is that the information is readily accessible in the public domain through Companies House. It will be accessible through the different…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (Second sitting)I will do that.22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (Second sitting)To clarify, I do not read it as being subordinate; it is merely clarificatory that that is within scope. I thought it might be useful to put that on the record.22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (Second sitting)The Government do not support the amendment. The hon. Lady is quite right to raise the importance of the regional split, and we all aspire to higher standards of transparency in…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (Second sitting)It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Bone. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire for his diligence in endeavouring to ensure that the Bill…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)The clause sets out the core provisions on the make-up of, and appointment to, the bank’s board of directors. The clause requires that the board has a number of directors that is…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)I shall strongly resist the temptation to debate the fundamental merits of workers on boards, overturning the existing system of UK corporate governance, or indeed the nationality…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)I beg to move amendment 5, clause 7, page 3, line 23, at end insert— “(ba) the Board is to appoint one or more directors to be responsible for ensuring that the Board considers…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire for rightly raising the important subject of governance, which relates to the arms length body in scope today. It is…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)Clause 5 gives the Treasury the power to provide the bank with financial assistance to enable it to deliver on its objectives. Financial assistance is defined in clause 10 to…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)Clause 4 contains a provision for His Majesty’s Treasury to issue the bank with a direction of a general or specific nature about how the bank is to deliver its statutory…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)The hon. Member’s amendment is a solution in search of a problem. The bank is constituted with taxpayers’ money, for which Ministers are accountable to Parliament and to Select…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)The hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead asked me to clarify. Of course we do not put everything in legislation; that is just not the way that we work. As we have committed to…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)I thank the hon. Lady and I reiterate that, in general, our differences are to do not with outcome, but with process and how prescriptive one should be when putting things into…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)I feel I have addressed this point a number of times. There is just a difference between us as to the degree to which we should embellish primary legislation, which is hard to…22 Nov 2022HANSARDUK Infrastructure Bank Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)The strategic steer is precisely an attempt to find the right balance between prescription—I understand that my hon. Friend does not seek that directly but wants to be able to…22 Nov 2022