§ Lord Williams of Elvelasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they consider that Clause 13 of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Bill is relevant to the Bill and, if so, on what grounds.
§ The Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Strathclyde)Clause 13 permits building societies to issue deferred shares at a premium. It will enable societies to issue, at different times, several tranches of Permanent Interest Bearing Shares bearing the same rate of interest, even if interest rates generally have moved in the meantime. Since such tranches can be subject to the terms and conditions of the original issue, are generally based on a single master document and are recorded on a single register, they allow savings to be made in issuing and administrative costs compared to the costs which would be incurred if a new issue had to be made each time. The clause will therefore lead to a reduction of burdens for building societies.