Speeches by Glen.

“Thank you very much. Chief Secretary, congratulations on your latest promotion. From your previous role as Economic Secretary, you will be very familiar with the terms that exist in financial services for loans and so on, and yet we seem to have an anomaly. The Treasury has for years, under all Governments, had PFI dea…”

“Could I just follow up with Mr Rusbridge on the issue of the FOS and FCA? For industry, it is presented as a clarification of a risk that the FOS makes individual decisions that are then deemed to have a wider pattern of behaviour behind them. On the other side, consumer organisations will say that the consumer is at r…”

“That is not how it has worked out. I will say that.”

“You will remove dissonance between the FOS and the FCA, which has been the principal anxiety of industry.”

“Can I just pick up on something that you were talking about in terms of financial education? The Government have given £15 million to Fair4All Finance to look at supporting 16 to 24-year-olds, and there is a curriculum review under way. What would success look like next spring when that curriculum review is completed? …”

“Is that by sector? Is he specifically looking at insurance? What are the parameters of his examination? It is welcome news, but I just wondered if you could tell us any more about what we could expect from that work?”

“Do you think that will go when this reform is taken through?”

“Do you think it goes far enough? Are there things that you would like to see in there, which are not there at the moment, that would help further?”

“What specifically would you want to see in terms of legislative change that would affect that outcome?”

“Minister, you are the fourth Economic Secretary in 23 months. That certainly is not your fault. I am sure you want to make a pledge that you will stay there till the end of this Parliament.”

“Before I speak, I need to declare that I am a member of the Financial Inclusion Commission and a non-exec director of Open Banking Ltd. I just wanted to follow up on that point about capacity. People will look at this and think, “The FCA is trying to sort this mess out and get consumers redress”, but you are hampered b…”

“Yes, that is right. It is good for the role. When we seriously look at the financial inclusion strategy, stakeholders looking in will say, “How can you possibly have a situation where you have a fourth Minister in less than two years?” What can you say about the delivery and institutional anchors within the Treasury in…”

“Until there is a change of Government at the next election, obviously. That reassurance is important. What can you say to reassure us?”

“It was my experience that there were frequent conversations, but there is a challenge in terms of accountability and the specificity of accountability. How do you plan to ensure that those partners are held to account for delivering actual outcomes?”

“You will have heard that in the previous session we raised the concerns in specific areas. Sarah Pritchard, the deputy chief executive of the FCA, set out the advantages and risks of AI and new technology. Do you harbour any concerns in that regard? Do you want to challenge stakeholders on things that are not being add…”

“Yes, in its application to the financially excluded.”

“Sorry to press it, but this is a really important point. For the FCA to be able to act swiftly, you need to ensure that sometimes statutory instruments and small legislative changes happen quickly. Are you content with the speed with which what you need translates into legislation in Parliament? It is best to be honest…”

“Some people would say that the greater sophistication that insurance firms have now and the tools that they have to measure risk mean that they can identify people to exclude, and they can do that on a quite sophisticated basis, falling behind some of these general principles that they go to market and they are there t…”

“Is that not the point? The housing associations are reticent to do that because they are anxious about being caught and penalised for doing it. This cat-and-mouse game has been going on for several years. Do you think you are any nearer resolving it so that you can give housing associations assurance that they can get …”

“Agriculture offers enormous growth opportunities in the UK, and when it comes to precision breeding and plant protection, it is vital that the SPS deal maintains the UK’s right to diverge on the basis of its own scientific assessments, particularly in those sectors. What reassurance can the Secretary of State give such…”