All 1 Jacob Rees-Mogg contributions to the Bank of England and Financial Services Act 2016

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Tue 19th Apr 2016
Bank of England and Financial Services Bill [Lords]
Commons Chamber

3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons

Bank of England and Financial Services Bill [Lords] Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Bank of England and Financial Services Bill [Lords]

Jacob Rees-Mogg Excerpts
3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Tuesday 19th April 2016

(8 years, 8 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Bank of England and Financial Services Act 2016 Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: Consideration of Bill Amendments as at 19 April 2016 - (19 Apr 2016)
Lord Tyrie Portrait Mr Tyrie
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That argument can be turned on its head. One can argue that this sets a precedent that is more easily rolled out, without the need for statutory change, to other bodies. In the Treasury field, we now have a statutory double lock for the appointment and dismissal of the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, which was recently found to be of some use following controversy about alleged interference in the production of the forecast—again, we did not find any evidence of that, but the perception of it might have weakened the OBR. We have a requirement for a resolution of the House prior to the appointment of the chairman of the Office for National Statistics, and now we also have these arrangements. So we have a battery of different arrangements on which to draw.

Jacob Rees-Mogg Portrait Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)
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I congratulate my right hon. Friend on achieving this great success for parliamentary scrutiny, and I suggest that it is better to proceed in a non-statutory way. Bringing statute into the proceedings of the House always presents longer term problems, and setting a non-statutory precedent has lots of advantages.

Lord Tyrie Portrait Mr Tyrie
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I always like listening to my hon. Friend, who is a member of the Treasury Committee and, of course, a constitutional expert. It is certainly true in this place that a good deal of quasi-constitutional change, which is what we have here, tends to take place gradually and often due to the development of informal arrangements. I think that that is all to the good, which is what I think my hon. Friend is saying.