Detainee Issues

Lord Deben Excerpts

Thursday 18th July 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Cookham]

The short answer is that I do not know whether there were people who were aware but did not take the appropriate action. One of the recommendations of Sir Adrian’s report is that in future, if you become aware of any mistreatment, you are under an obligation to report it. On her first point, the noble Baroness is absolutely right that the ISC found no evidence of direct maltreatment by our staff. It is right to pay tribute to our intelligence and security staff, who work hard to keep us safe, often in challenging circumstances. I pay tribute to that work but, against the background of the exchanges we have had, it is right that they should be held to the highest possible standards.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

Is it not rather surprising that only now is it suggested to people that if they become aware of such a matter they should report it? After all, any company that becomes aware of such a matter in its supply chain has a legal requirement to report it and can be held responsible. This is, in a sense, part of our supply chain and I find it extraordinary that we did not take that view before. It is for that reason that I am not surprised that the public as a whole are pretty questioning about the degree to which we are prepared to own up to our responsibility in these circumstances. Perhaps further measures should be taken, merely for public confidence.

[Lord Young of Cookham]

Perhaps it would help my noble friend if I refer to the specific paragraph in Sir Adrian’s letter. He said:

“It was argued in number of responses to the consultation that there should be a post-notification process for individuals who have been mistreated following a failure properly to apply any new guidance or principles. This would enable them to seek redress. Reprieve and Freedom from Torture, in a joint submission, made substantive representations regarding the UK’s international obligations in this regard”.


I will write to my noble friend when I have discovered the other part of Sir Adrian’s recommendations, which builds on the current position, but makes more explicit that there is now an obligation, if people come across mistreatment, to pass it up the chain. I recognise that the paragraph I just read out was not directly relevant to my noble friend’s question.

Securitisation (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Lord Deben Excerpts

Monday 25th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sharkey (LD)]

My Lords, I have only one brief question, which is to do with the transparency SI. I accept that we should approve both the SIs before us, but I regret that there has been no consultation on either instrument. As I remarked earlier, the engagement noted in both EMs is not a satisfactory substitute. However, I was happy to hear the Minister’s response to my suggestion of a more informative account of engagement becoming part of future EMs.

Reading the EM and the impact assessment for the transparency SI highlights one issue: the usual question of reciprocity. The EM for the transparency SI makes it clear that the Treasury can decide which third-country entities can access data on SFTs held in UK trade repositories. I assume that this provision means that all EEA entities currently with access will be allowed continued access. But what about the other way round? As things stand, if we crash out of the EU with no deal, will the UK still have access to data held in the three EEA trade repositories? If not, would it have significant implications for our financial services industry? Have the Government made any estimate of what the consequences of non-reciprocity might be? What assurance have the Government had from the EU, if any, that the UK would be allowed continued access after 29 March?

[Lord Deben (Con)]

My Lords, in the absence of the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, I want to declare my interest as chairman of PIMFA, the organisation representing wealth managers and independent financial advisers, and to say to my noble friend that these are two very important SIs which we have to have—there is no doubt about that. This is a branch of our financial industry which was not, as my noble friend said, properly cared for. It did not have the transparency which it needed and it now does. Very sensibly, that was done over the whole European Union, because that is the area over which much of this—not all of it—is served.

It is crucial that we get reciprocity; it would be a serious blow to the industry if we did not. My noble friend reminded us with such elegance that this measure is here only should we crash out of the European Union. Every day, we recognise what a nonsense that would be and how unaware of the facts those who seem to want it really are, but we should not miss the opportunity of reminding the House of this fact.

My noble friend mentioned that all these powers will go largely to the Financial Conduct Authority but that some will go to the Prudential Regulation Authority. Yet again, we have a series of jobs being given to people without any price on them. I am sure that my noble friend will say what he has said on other occasions, which is that the authorities concerned are perfectly aware that they are able to cover this within their current budgets. I am beginning to wonder whether their budgets are not too generous, because they appear to be able to cover so many things without any extra costs. I merely say to my noble friend that it is becoming difficult for the House to recognise how this can be. If those authorities manage to get by for a relatively short period, I have no doubt that they will then ask the industry to pay the cost thereafter.

Again, it is perfectly reasonable to say that the industry is paying the cost towards the European Union at the moment and it will be in much the same place if we bring this to a British system. I have two things to say about that. First, I would rather like to know what that place is, because we do not seem to be told. Secondly, the industry is not in the same place. At present, it is paying towards a system which gives it access to the whole of the European Union. We are now suggesting that it should pay for one which will only give it access to itself. It would have been valuable to see what the difference in cost was there.

Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018

Lord Deben Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd January 2019 Grand Committee

I note that this provision was drawn to the special attention of the House by the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee Sub-Committee A in its report published on 9 January. The FCA is the appropriate body to regulate CRAs, given its current regulatory role in market operations and in protecting the integrity of these markets, and it has the necessary resource capacity to effectively carry out its new function.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

When my noble friend says that the FCA has the necessary resource capacity, does that mean that it could do it if it had the money and resources to do it—in other words, if it were intellectually able to do it—or does he mean that it already has the financial and staffing capacity to do it?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

The FCA has been consulted about these regulations. If there were a no-deal scenario, I am advised that it has the necessary resource capacity to effectively carry out its new function. Perhaps I can deal in more detail with my noble friend’s question now.

As I hope I said, the FCA has dedicated the necessary resources to account for the additional work through its 2018-19 business plan, and it will ensure that its considerable experience and technical expertise in regulating the financial services sector is reflected in its new supervisory role in relation to the CRAs.

[Lord Deben]

I am sorry to trouble my noble friend again but who will pay for this? The resources of the FCA are, to a large extent, raised through various kinds of costings. I declare an interest, as set out in the register, as the chairman of PIMFA. Who will pay this bit of its budget?

[Lord Young of Cookham]

My Lords, the chief executive of the FCA, Andrew Bailey, has said that he expects to hold FCA fees steady for a year or so, assuming that there is an implementation period. However, the FCA is able to increase its fees should it need to increase its income in the event of no deal.

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[Lord Deben]

My Lords, I want to make a couple of fundamental points. First, my noble friend uses the word “equivalent”, but of course this is not equivalent. It is equivalent only in the sense that it applies to Britain; therefore, immediately, it is not the same thing. He may say that this is chopping logic, but I think that it is important for us to underline that when you take into British law what has been up to now European law, you assert your control over what happens here but you deny the fact that you had some control over what happens over the whole area. That, therefore, is not equivalent. It may be what people want, but I doubt that people who voted to leave understood the details. Indeed, none of us did until we started to go through it—what I say is not in any way insulting to either side. The fact is that this is much more complex than we thought.

The effect, which I think is important, is that we say of many of the things that we are talking about, “These institutions are international. We are still part of Europe, in the sense that we are working in this space. Therefore, we are going to try, even if we leave the European Union and even if we do so without a deal, to have arrangements that will overcome these problems”. Then my noble friend says, “We will do these things on a discretionary basis”. The problem with a discretionary basis is that it is exactly that. There will be occasions when the British Government—or the FCA—do some of these things and occasions when they do not. My concern is that, by translating where we are now into a national position and not an international position, as far as the financial services industry is concerned—I have declared my interest—we introduce a degree of randomness that we do not have at the moment. At the moment, we know when these things happen. Under the regulations, we will not know, because it will be at the discretion of the British Government to decide what things they will do in common and what things they will not.

The second thing to say is that this is entirely one-sided. We are saying that we will take these powers over the things that we have control of, but we have no deal under which we can get the information and no deal on things over which we have partial control. The noble Baroness who just spoke is absolutely right. There is a real issue about information. How will we know some of these things? If we leave the European Union and do not have information in common, there will be things that affect us which we will not know unless we have a deal which allows—and not only allows but makes—the European authorities to be in a position to tell the Government or the FCA the information that they have.

The third important thing is the whole question of who pays the bill. I am very much relieved by the Minister’s assertion that, for example, credit agencies will pay a fee, as they do at the moment, and that that fee will come to the FCA rather than to the European authorities. But it is important for him to recognise that there is already considerable unhappiness about the unaccountability of the FCA for the charges that it makes. There is no way of monitoring the charges which the FCA makes—no superior court to go to. There is a constant problem with the FCA because many of its charges seem, to those of us who represent people who have to pay them, to be unconnected either with the rise in the cost of living or indeed with the services that are provided. The difficulty with bringing everything back into this country is that there is nowhere to appeal to. The FCA is entirely under its own decision-making process, and says, “We have got enough money, but if we don’t have enough money, we’ll just raise the tariff”. I want to know from the Minister when we will have a situation in which even a group of people with whom I have no very close relationship—namely, the credit rating agencies; indeed, I have some pretty serious complaints about them—ought to have some opportunity to complain about the price that they are charged. I do not see any reference to that, nor indeed has the Minister mentioned it altogether.

My last point is, simply, that of course everything therefore comes into the hands of the Treasury. That is what happens when you nationalise what was and should be an international effort. Everything is decided by the Treasury. When people talked about “taking back control”, what that actually means here is that the Treasury takes back control. I see no opportunity for anybody outside the Treasury to be able to oversee the decisions that are made here. I say to the Minister that I am not at all sure that that is a very cheerful future. It seems that there was a great deal to be said for the much more open way in which the European Union deals with these matters. It is a much more transparent system than the system that we have in this country. One of the pieces of truth which I am afraid has been lost in the debates about Brexit is that in many areas, the European Union has been much more willing to discuss, much more open and much more transparent. We are going to lose all that, and I do not see anything in the Minister’s speech—admirable though it was—that indicates that the Treasury will open itself up to a more transparent system and provide opportunities for people to complain, argue and to know what the details are, and I see no sign that the same will happen with the FCA. This is therefore a further closure of the mechanisms of the financial world, and less transparency and openness. I am sorry that the Government have not taken this opportunity to say, “When the time comes, if we leave the European Union, we will start on a process of opening these things up”. I realise it cannot be part of this SI because it would change the nature of the legislation but I would like to hear something of the willingness of the Treasury to mimic, to some extent, the openness of the European Union, which we are now going to lose.

[Lord Tunnicliffe (Lab)]

My Lords, perhaps I can start by posing the same question on these two SIs as I did before. Are they no-deal only SIs or ones that will be switched off? I am entirely happy for the Minister to reference his previous reply, if that is, in fact, the reply he will give. I have tested these SIs as best I can on the basis of paragraphs 7.1 to 7.9 of the Explanatory Memorandum. Noble Lords will have read these points before as they are the same in every Explanatory Memorandum. They basically say that new policy will not be introduced except where necessary.

Largely speaking, I have found nothing to complain about. However, there were one or two areas I did not understand. I start with the Explanatory Memorandum on the first SI, on market abuse. In paragraphs 2.7 and 2.8 once again I think the problem is that the author knew what they were talking about and I do not. The first sentence of paragraph 2.8 says:

“The decision to keep instruments admitted to trading or traded on EU venues, rather than amending to a UK only scope, was taken because of the close relationship between UK and EU markets”.


I hope that the Minister might expand on that because I find the language of that paragraph, in particular, extraordinarily difficult to understand.

On international co-operation, we have had one reply. I want to press the noble Lord further. We hope that the outcome of this—no matter how badly we do it—is that we are still in this international market and therefore working together not just with the EU but with the rest of the world. As I understand it at the moment, we effectively work with the rest of the world keeping abuse regulations, in particular, up to date through the channels of the EU. How will that be replaced? The abuse regulations, in particular, clearly have to be kept up to date.

The remaining thing to say about the first SI is that it should not be in front of us because of the absurd paragraph 12.5 in the Explanatory Memorandum that says we are going to have an impact assessment but not until we have agreed the instrument. As we know, the noble Lord, Lord Bates, took some stick on that—I think that would be the right term—and your Lordships might moderate that stick by some useful comments. I do not know.

Moving on to credit rating agencies, I have a couple of questions. One is, once again, due to my failure to understand. I did get O-level English—I am not that bad, I hope. My understanding of the three bullet points in paragraph 7.12 of the Explanatory Memorandum diminished as I read through them. In particular, I have no idea what this means:

“The Automatic Certification Process will enable Certified CRAs established outside the EU to notify the FCA of their intention to extend certification to the UK. Like the Conversion Regime, these notifications must be made before exit day”.


I do not know what a “Certified CRA” is.

Finally, paragraph 7.15 covers enforcement and makes reference to criminal actions. It also makes reference to sections in FSMA, which would be a joy if I had an up-to-date copy to check them against. What I would like to be reassured about—or not if it is not true—is whether credit rating agencies are subject to the requirement to have a senior management regime where the clarity of roles is such that if a criminal prosecution was to take place, as referred to in this paragraph, that prosecution could be directed at an individual.

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[Lord Young of Cookham]

It is a very good question, and the answer is that we do not have the exact information as to the exact turnover or number of people employed in the CRAs. I will make further inquiries and see if I can shed some light on that. I might get some in-flight refuelling.

[Lord Deben]

When my noble friend sheds some light on that, would he be kind enough to explain something which is often hidden in this? I do not quite understand why there is an additional cost if we are to do the same thing, only locally, because they must have been paying somewhere else. Could my noble friend make sure that we have an answer that shows which bits are, if you like, real additions and which are a replacement for somewhere else? That is all I want to know.

[Lord Young of Cookham]

Seeing whether one can net it off is a very good question, and I will see whether we can do that—I probably cannot do it on my feet.

To revert to the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, about how the £11.4 million cost to the credit rating agencies relates to the size of the industry, we expect credit rating agencies to incur an estimated £10,000 per firm for changes to IT systems and £60,000 per firm for reporting requirements. This is for the five firms that the FCA expects to enter the regime. On top of that, there are familiarisation costs. Perhaps I could write to the noble Lord with more information, seeing whether we can net it off, as my noble friend has just said, by looking at what they have to pay at the moment.

The answer to the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, about the status of this SI, if there is an agreement, is the same as in the last debate. The SIs would be delayed and may then be repealed or amended as appropriate, depending on what deal we actually do.

The noble Lord asked for an explanation of the third option of paragraph 7.12 of the Explanatory Memorandum. This relates to credit rating agencies’ pre-exit applications to the FCA. All credit rating agencies will need to register with the FCA in order to establish legal entities in the UK following exit. Firms can complete this registration through the automatic certification process. Basically, if you have a credit rating agency which is located outside the EU but which has registered with an EU credit rating agency, it can apply to have that certification extended to the UK in a sort of passporting arrangement.

The noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, asked about the senior management structure of credit rating agencies and whether individuals could be held responsible. It is a good question. The senior managers and certification regime does not currently apply to credit rating agencies; I think that one of the reasons is that they do not actually handle customers’ money, which of course banks and other agencies do. Regulation 22 of the SI applies Section 400 of the FiSMA, which provides that if an offence committed was with the consent or connivance of an officer of the body corporate, or due to neglect on its part, the individual as well as the corporate is guilty of an offence.

Finally, on international co-operation, the MAR SI amends Part 8 of the FiSMA to facilitate international co-operation between EU and non-EU regulators and the FCA. There are existing co-operation provisions for cases of market abuse that we will seek to rely on. Related to that, both the Treasury and the FCA will continue to co-operate internationally with the EU to facilitate identification and enforcement of market abuse, and we are confident that the FCA and HMT can continue this co-operation despite no longer being part of the EU.

Building Regulations and Fire Safety: Government Response

Lord Deben Excerpts

Thursday 17th May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Deben (Con)]

My Lords, we are all deeply concerned that this should not happen again and I welcome what the Minister has read out. In particular, I hope the Government will give a clear indication that the banning of combustible materials is something they would like to do. We have to have a consultation, but, given our debate yesterday on why it is important to make clear in any consultation where the Government believe the future should be, it is important that the Government are very clear about this.

Does my noble friend accept that Dame Judith’s report clearly highlights that inspection and enforcement have a big role to play, and failed in this case? Therefore, I hope I am not extending it too far to say that there is a fundamental problem with the building regulations in general. We have to recognise that building regulations are not being met by new housebuilders, for example, because they are not inspected and the regulations are not enforced. In my view, this is a clarion call to review the way in which inspection and enforcement take place. I hope the Government will say that this is not just about fire safety but about all the other regulations we have passed, which should be enforced. I suppose I ought to declare my interest as chairman of the climate change committee. This is a real issue for us, because we cannot get the enforcement we need for new buildings.

[Lord Young of Cookham]

I am grateful to my noble friend, himself a former Secretary of State at the Department of the Environment with responsibility for building regulations. The Hackitt review has recommended what she calls “gateways”—steps that must be fulfilled before the next stage in the construction process can happen, from design, to planning, to completion. On inspection, there is an interesting section in the report about approved inspectors, where Dame Judith sees a perceived conflict of interest and recommends some changes. On regular inspection, there is a recommendation that high-rise buildings should be inspected rigorously at least every five years for safety. On resources for the planning regime, my noble friend will know that we have recently increased the fees that planning authorities may charge with the increase being ring-fenced for actions such as enforcement.

I should have said in response to the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, that I have the latest figures from the royal borough on the rehousing of the Grenfell survivors. As of 14 May, of the 210 households that needed to be rehoused, 201—95%—have accepted offers of temporary or permanent accommodation. Of those, 138 have moved into temporary or permanent accommodation of which 64 are currently living in temporary accommodation and 74 have moved into permanent accommodation. Kensington and Chelsea Council is spending £235 million on providing the homes needed and we know that the council plans to spend an additional £83 million on top of the £152 million it has already reported spending. It has reported that it has now made over 300 permanent homes available to survivors to give people as much choice as possible.

On the building regulations, Dame Judith’s point was that the problem was not so much the regulations but a failure of the system that supervises and enforces them.

Financial Guidance and Claims Bill [HL]

Lord Deben Excerpts

Committee: 4th sitting (Hansard): House of Lords
Wednesday 13th September 2017 Lords Chamber

On the second day of Committee, I was very impressed by the Minister’s passionate desire to ban cold calling for pensions and her obvious frustration at being unable to do so in this Bill. This amendment would enable us to ban cold calling for CMCs. I hope that she will seize the opportunity to do just that. I beg to move.

[Lord Deben (Con)]

My Lords, I support this measure. This industry has become huge. I emphasise the very simple point to my noble friend that it is an industry which encourages fraud and leads people to do things which they would never have done without this pressure. I do not believe we want that kind of thing in our society. It is expensive for decent people, holidaymakers and everybody, and the people who do it are among the most unpleasant people in our society. They are leeches on our society. My noble friend the Minister has treated this Committee extremely well and has spoken most charmingly about many things. I do not think this is something we can just pass off with good words. We have to tackle this. If we do not do that, we will fail the public as a whole. Above all, this is something we can do about morality. We should not have a society in which people are led astray in this way. This is not an industry that we need to encourage and the way to kill it is simply to say, “You can’t impose yourself on other people”. There is too much imposition anyway. This is something we could do.

[Baroness Altmann]

My Lords, I support this amendment and speak to my Amendment 73 on the same topic, which seeks to achieve the same aim as Amendment 72. The scale of nuisance calls is of great concern, as has been expressed in previous debates on this Bill from noble Lords on all sides of the House. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers states that an estimated 51 million cold calls or texts are received each year from regulated claims management companies for personal injury claims. Although such nuisance calls are supposed to be prevented by existing regulations, current measures are clearly ineffective.

Reforms of claims management companies are clearly urgently needed. I congratulate my noble friend on introducing the Bill. Carol Brady’s excellent independent review of the regulation of claims management firms recommended moving responsibility to the FCA, which is what the Bill does, and I wholly support that. However, it is also important to protect the public from nuisance calls and texts, which the claims management companies often plague people with; to reduce the level of speculative and even fraudulent claims, which cause added costs for companies and end up costing other consumers extra money; and to stop customers being fooled into paying up-front fees to unscrupulous claims management companies, which they then never recover after they discover that they did not have a valid claim in the first place.

FCA regulation of CMCs will help toughen the oversight of nuisance calls, but that move alone is not sufficient to properly protect consumers. The FCA has powers of enforcement that are better than the current regime; it can strip those found to be flouting the rules of their ability to operate and can hold directors personally liable. But a ban on unsolicited approaches would add much more protection. It would be clear to consumers that they should not engage with firms which contact them and encourage them to make spurious claims. Currently, the claims management companies act with impunity to entice people to make easy money. But of course this has the effect of imposing higher costs on the wider public, as we have already heard this afternoon, because firms will charge more to cover the risks of such claims. We have seen this clearly with whiplash injuries and we are seeing this with holiday sickness claims. Indeed, the Law Society has also written to me to support the banning of cold calls. ABTA cites the problems that we have already discussed about the dramatic rise in speculative and fraudulent claims. This will cause detriment to the wider public if we do not make sure that we take the opportunity in the Bill to retain effective measures to address the issue.

The Minister has already said how much she wishes that she could ban cold calling for pension companies, and there was support across the whole House for that measure, but it is questionable; we hope that we might be able to find a way to get that into the Bill. However, cold calling for claims management companies clearly is in scope of the Bill. When defining “claims culture” in a Parliamentary Answer on 19 April 2016, my honourable friend in another place, Dominic Raab, said:

“The Autumn Statement referred to the cost to society of the substantial industry that encourages claims through cold calling and other social nuisances and which increases premiums for consumers”.


Therefore the Government have clearly equated claims culture with cold calling, and the logical and fair action would surely be to ban cold calling for personal injury claims rather than restrict the rights of people who have been injured through no fault of their own, which the Government are expected to do in the forthcoming civil liability Bill. These proposals perhaps aim slightly at the wrong target, but the Bill gives the Government the opportunity to aim at the right target and ban cold calling, which they state encourages a claims culture.

As the Government recognise that there is a problem, and there is both industry and public support, the Bill could be amended to include this ban on cold calling. Whether it is through Amendment 72, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, and the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, or Amendment 73, in my own name and that of the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, I hope that we might take this opportunity to protect the public in this manner by banning cold calling.

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[Lord McKenzie of Luton]

My Lords, this has been an extensive and fascinating debate. We on these Benches support the call for a ban on cold calling, as laid out in Amendments 72 and 73. As to which is the right formulation, the answer is probably neither of them as they stand, but we can work on that between now and Report.

My noble friend Lady Drake argued for a well-regulated market and the need for access to justice. That is not inconsistent with a ban on cold calling; it seems to me entirely consistent. I hope that deals with the concern expressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer.

We have heard some very powerful presentations. The noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, introduced the amendment with a range of statistics. His term was “omnipresent menace”, which has been demonstrated extensively in this afternoon’s debate. The noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, said that such cold calling was a social nuisance of massive proportions, and I agree. For me, it interrupts my slumbers on the sofa on the Sunday afternoon, but that may be a minor inconvenience.

The noble Lord, Lord Deben, said it was an industry we could do without. My noble friend Lady Drake dealt with that point: we need a well-regulated industry because we need a means of helping people reach justice.

[Lord Deben]

I am sorry; it was a slip of the tongue. It is a mechanism which we could do without from this industry.

[Lord McKenzie of Luton]

I take the noble Lord’s point.

The noble Baroness, Lady Stowell, made the interesting point that some of the behaviours that the existence of cold calling has generated have an impact on our reputation not only here in the UK but around the world. Many other points were made, all in favour of a ban on cold calling.

We should reject the suggestion that we should shy away from such a move because the Government have perhaps set their face against it for the time being. Anybody from outside the Chamber who has listened to this debate would readily see the consensus reflected on all these Benches. We should test the democracy of this Chamber and bring forward amendments that are in scope but focus on claims management as a start. We realise that the Ministers are not unsympathetic, so it would help them in their cause of persuading Secretaries of State and the wider mechanisms of government to support the measure. The Government have done the right thing, although too slowly, on pensions; here is an opportunity to follow that up swiftly and ban cold calling for claims management operations as soon as we can. We should do that quickly.

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[Baroness Buscombe]

I am trying to make the point that the transfer of claims management company regulation to the FCA will result, we believe, in tougher regulation and should reduce the number of unsolicited calls made by CMCs. What I am really saying is: can we please give the FCA a chance? While there are already measures in place to tackle unsolicited calls, enforced by the Information Commissioner’s Office, unfortunately there is a minority of disreputable companies which flout the law. The ICO will take enforcement action where appropriate; as I have said, in 2016-17 it did so against 23 companies. We need to improve on this and we hope this will happen through tougher regulation.

I hope I have explained the difference between cold calling for CMCs and cold calling for pensions, which we are taking action on. I think my noble friend Lord Deben was suggesting, as indeed were other noble Lords, that we should have a wholesale ban on cold calling, but one has to be really careful what one wishes for. This point about access to justice is very important. Clearly, there are different routes to making unsolicited approaches. If we had a wholesale ban on cold calling, what would political parties do?

[Lord Deben]

I was not going to interrupt my noble friend but since she has mentioned it, the matter is very clear. We are talking about cold calling for a particular purpose. She has to accept that there are 50 million calls and the number is rising all the time, so the present system does not work. It is very simple: we just ban them. Why can we not do this? I do not understand.

[Baroness Buscombe]

I think I have just tried to explain that one of the reasons for transferring the regulatory role to the FCA is to take this forward through good regulation in the hope that it will work. As I was trying to say, we have to be careful what we wish for in terms of access to justice through the means of people being able to receive calls, which we can call unsolicited—such as those made by political parties. That is part of a wholesale ban on cold calling, which noble Lords have referred to.

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[Lord Deben]

I am sorry to interrupt my noble friend again, but I specifically did not do that. Better regulation is to ban the calls. That is what better regulation is.

[Baroness Buscombe]

I thank my noble friend for his further response.

To respond to my noble friend Lord Trenchard’s question about whether SMS, email and letters are all cold calling, this is an important point and I confirm that we differentiate between them. Cold calling is the solicitation of business from potential customers who have had no prior contact with the salesperson conducting the call, while unsolicited direct marketing is communication by any means, including email and text, of marketing and advertising material. We genuinely believe that the existing measures I have set out, alongside the new FCA regime, should help tackle CMCs conducting unsolicited direct marketing. I know there is a very strong feeling across the Committee, and we take this on board, but, for the reasons I have set out, the Government do not believe that the amendment is necessary. I hope that the noble Lord will withdraw his amendment.