Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Lindsay Roy Excerpts
Wednesday 15th June 2011

(12 years, 11 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Oliver Letwin Portrait Mr Letwin
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That very much depends, of course, on the state aid process, which, as the hon. Gentleman will know from his own experience, we cannot totally determine. In order not to waste time, however, the investment committee that has been set up within the Big Lottery Fund will begin to disburse funds from dormant accounts as soon as they are made available and released. I hope that that will happen within a few months.

Lindsay Roy Portrait Lindsay Roy (Glenrothes) (Lab)
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At a recent meeting of the Public Administration Committee, Sir Ronald Cohen said that the big society bank might have to change its name because it is not a bank. Will the Minister enlighten us? If it is not a bank, what is it?

Oliver Letwin Portrait Mr Letwin
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The hon. Gentleman’s question reminds me of Maynard Keynes’s dictum when asked about the IMF and the World Bank. I think he said that the World Bank was a kind of fund, and the IMF was a kind of bank. There are often these oddities in the naming of things. Shall we just call it the BSB and know what it does, rather than worry about the name?