§ 2.35 p.m.
§ LORD FRASER OF LONSDALEMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, following the precedent of the Trustee Act which mobilises charitable funds otherwise unused, they will consider taking steps to free unclaimed dividends and unclaimed assets in safe custody after a sufficient period has elapsed so that the value thereof may be turned to some good purpose.]
THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT (EARL JELLICOE)My Lords, Her Majesty's Government see no valid justification for the course proposed which is in any case open to serious objections. Unclaimed dividends on Government stocks are, however, already used by the Exchequer under the provisions of Section 5 of the Miscellaneous Financial Provisions Act, 1955.
§ LORD FRASER of LONSDALEMy Lords, does my noble friend share with me the suspicion, or guess, that where the persons who have an interest have died there may be millions, possibly tens of millions, of pounds locked up in unclaimed dividends or in the vaults of banks? Can it really be said to be in the public interest that this should continue rather than that these assets should be mobilised and used? Further, without suggesting that they should be sequestrated, may I ask whether the application of something like the cy-prés doctrine might not bring them into a use 318 nearer that which was originally intended; and whether the Government would appoint a Committee, or, if that is too big an enterprise, a civil servant or an ex-civil servant, to inquire how much money is thus locked up and what would be required to be done to free it for use?
EARL JELLICOEMy Lords, my noble friend has given me a question or two to answer. I will try to answer some of them. In the first place, I think I can allay his suspicions to some extent about the amount of money locked up in this way. I think that probably rather less than £6 million is locked up with the clearing banks, and a somewhat similar figure with the Post Office Savings Bank and the Trustee Savings Bank. It is not the gold mine which it is sometimes thought to be. Secondly, I should like to mention the objections which the Government see to the course proposed by my noble friend. First the Government would have no moral title to these balances. Such use would involve violating the secrecy attaching to private bank accounts and would raise difficulties about the particular point in time at which the balance in question should be regarded as dormant. In any event, I should like to remind my noble friend that the Exchequer already has the use of a good deal of this money in the form of Treasury Bills, or by way of investments. These sleeping balances are not so fast asleep.