Bank of England (Appointment of Governor) Bill

Debate between Lord Johnson of Marylebone and Baroness Primarolo

Friday 6th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Joseph Johnson]

I thank my hon. Friend for that point. I remind the House of what I was permitted to relay about the private views of the Chairman of the Treasury Committee. His private view—he was not speaking in his capacity as Chairman of the Committee—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

Order. With respect, shall we leave the Chair of the Treasury Committee to express his own views and stop talking about his private views?

[Joseph Johnson]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I will follow that guidance.

I am equally concerned that giving the Treasury Committee a veto over the dismissal of a Governor could, in certain circumstances, create an unacceptable situation in which the Governor has lost the confidence of the Government but hangs on as a lame duck. That would clearly be unacceptable given the Executive powers he would be discharging on behalf of the state. That is exactly why the Government have historically attempted to address those issues by limiting the Treasury Committee’s role to non-statutory pre-commencement hearings with members of the Bank’s policy committees, which of course already include the Governor and deputy governors.

Let us not forget that the Treasury Committee already has a huge impact through its oversight, as Lord Burns noted in another place,

“simply by the way it brings people in, talks to them, summarises its opinions and then leaves it in the hands of Ministers to decide how far they wish to take account of those views”.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 26 June 2012; Vol. 738, c. 163.]