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Baroness Walmsley explains how young people are losing out as the government drags its feet over dormant bank accounts.
In autumn 2008 the government took the Dormant Bank and Building Societies Act through Parliament. Under this legislation money in bank accounts that have not been used for many years could be put into a fund and distributed to provide services and activities for the young people of our country. The owners of the accounts would have plenty of opportunity to reclaim the money.
The Big Lottery Fund (BLF), which is accustomed to carrying out such tasks, was charged with the job of receiving applications for grants and deciding where the money should go.
The government was to provide a policy direction for the BLF to provide criteria under which it should judge applications. In the meantime a reclaim fund was to be set up, where some of the money would be invested, to ensure that, even if the owner of an account applied late, his money could be returned to him.
This was 14 months ago and still no money has found its way to projects benefiting young people. Indeed, the reclaim fund has not been set up and the Big Lottery Fund has received no policy direction.
This means that those who might be considering applying have no way of knowing whether their project is in line with the government's intentions under the Act or not.
Why has the government been so slow about this? I have often found that, when other legislation is going through the House, the government has already made arrangements to implement it long before Parliament has given its consent.
So what's the problem in this case? Is it the banks dragging their feet or is it the government?
When I question the minister in the Lords on Tuesday I will be asking when the reclaim fund will be up and running. I will also be calling for the policy direction to be as flexible as possible so that the money can go towards what young people are really in need of and want and not something prescribed by Whitehall.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd