Government Departments: Communication with Industry and Commerce

Lord Kamall Excerpts

Monday 14th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord for his helpful question. The message we seek to convey is that the City of London is an important component of the UK financial infrastructure. It makes an important contribution to the UK economy. Proportionate regulation is vital to this sector, but we continue to encourage and support it.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, while we welcome better communications between government and businesses, how aware are the Government of the concept of rent-seeking, in which businesses may ask for measures that are beneficial to them but detrimental to other sectors?

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My noble friend makes an important point. We had a lot of experience of this in the European Parliament, as a lot of businesses would lobby for regulation that was favourable to them and would perhaps encourage regulation that was unfavourable to their competitors. We have to be careful to make sure that such practices are not widespread. It is important that we continue to engage with businesses. As I said earlier, we will not always agree, but we need to listen to what they say.