I recall that the numbers have gone down slightly in recent years, but IVAs obviously have carved a niche for themselves in our system. Many people, especially professionals, will strive for an IVA rather than formally enter insolvency proceedings, for the obvious reason that they may be able to continue to practise as, for example, solicitors. People have used IVAs on a fairly widespread basis over several years. In terms of saving court time and professional fees, I am sure that we would all encourage a relatively informal solution whereby a debtor sat down with his creditors and hammered out an agreement on how he would repay them over a period, in whole or in part.

All the commentators seem to agree—which is a blessing—that IVAs will become significantly less popular because of the Bill. To put it broadly, if someone can go in and out of bankruptcy in a year or possibly much less time, what is the attraction of an IVA? It might be interesting to discuss under a later clause whether IVAs would still be any attraction when professions were involved. The Under-Secretary may be able to help me in an intervention.

We are clearly changing the position somewhat for Members of Parliament and others such as justices of the peace, although I read only two days ago in the paper that they are no longer supposed to call themselves that. If not in this debate, I hope that later we can clear up what the attitude of professional bodies such as the Law Society will be. Perhaps they will take a similar view and say that if someone goes into insolvency he will not suffer the risk of being unable to practise his profession unless a bankruptcy restrictions order applies to him. In any event, it is clear that IVAs have fulfilled a purpose in the treatment of people in this country with financial difficulties. However, they do not always achieve what they are supposed to.

In the context of the clause and how the Under-Secretary might reconsider it, I want to raise an issue

on behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond). He asked me to mention a case in which two of his constituents were put to some trouble and cost when one of the other leaseholders went in for an IVA, which was ran by an insolvency practitioner based at the other end of the country. Many of my hon. Friend's constituents' difficulties were caused—at least indirectly—by the fact that the gentleman in the IVA had failed to declare what amounted to beneficial ownership of his flat in the block. It was difficult to pin down who was speaking on his behalf, but it became apparent in the course of the IVA that the man had not fully declared his assets and, in particular, his beneficial ownership of the flat.

The problems generated by that failure provoked correspondence between my hon. Friend and the chief executive—the inspector general and agency chief executive, to give him his full title—of the Insolvency Service. The inspector general confirmed that, although the person nominated to run the IVA must be a licensed insolvency practitioner, he must take only reasonable steps to satisfy himself about the debtor's true position as to assets and liabilities, and ensure that it does not differ in any material respect from that represented to the creditors.

We do not believe that IVAs always work splendidly. I have provided just one example of an IVA that was undermined by the very informality of the IVA procedure. What role does the Under-Secretary predict for IVAs? Will they become a thing of the past, and if so, will that be a good thing?