§ Mr. Ken Weetchasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any abuses by those granted access to the register of building society members have been notified to the Registrar of Friendly Societies.
§ Mr. Bruce-GardyneNo case of such abuse has been notified to the Chief Registrar. However, there was one case, to which I referred in my reply to the hon. Member on 8 March, where the circular subsequently issued by the members who had access to the register involved some risk of damage to the interests of members generally.
The wording of the circular was such that it could have given rise to misgivings, at least in the minds of some readers, about the society's financial position, and so put at risk the confidence of investors generally in the society. The authors did not intend to give this impression—and the careful reader of the circular would not have received it. So this was not an abuse of the direction giving access to the register. But it did point to the need for some vetting procedure, such as was the subject of the hon. Member's previous question.
§ Mr. Weetchasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the Chief Registrar will use the powers given to him under section 110 of the Building Societies Act 1962 to establish whether the Anglia Building Society is making adequate provision for its members to participate effectively in the proceedings of the society.
§ Mr. Bruce-GardyneNo.
§ Mr. Weetchasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will introduce legislation to ensure that building society annual returns—form AR11—are available to all building society members 14 days before the annual general meetings take place.
§ Mr. Bruce-GardyneThe question of what information should be either circulated to members or available to them on request is a matter which will have to be reviewed when next there is major building society legislation.