'A dog's breakfast': Labour peer's verdict on FS Bill

Scheduled to gain Royal Assent by the end of this year, the Bill will split up the Financial Services Authority, creating a twin-peaks regime, and hand more power to the Bank of England.

During the Bill's second reading in the House of Lords yesterday, Lord Eatwell, the opposition spokesperson for Treasury and Economic Affairs, said the bill failed the key tests of accountability, clarity, efficiency and transparency.

"The Bill is unnecessarily complicated because, instead of drafting a new template for the financial services industry, superseding all past relevant Acts and incorporating the new banking Bill that is yet to be published enacting the Vickers proposals, the Government have constructed a dog's breakfast of amendments to earlier legislation," he added.

Some of his concerns echoed those expressed by the Treasury Select Committee last week, which suggested the government was trying to rush the bill and failing to make the new regulators accountable enough to parliament.

Lord Eatwell insisted the upper house of Parliament would act on the committee's concerns, saying it would devote "as long as it takes to sort out this flawed Bill".

With more than 30 peers lining up to speak on the Bill, debate ran until 11.02pm, when an attempt to commit it to Grant Committee failed after significant opposition from peers.

Senior peers including former chancellor Lord Lamont argued that the committee stage of the Bill should take place on the floor of the House considering its importance.

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