Speeches by Grady.

“Does my right hon. Friend agree that the essential truth is that the Government have introduced a package of measures to make the poorest families in Glasgow and across the United Kingdom better off, whereas the Conservatives propose plunging those families back into extreme poverty? They left us with ridiculous levels…”

“Mr Smart, I fear that this could be a long morning for you. The FCA published a cross-firm review of efforts to combat romance fraud. I have two questions. I will ask one at a time. The first one is about what the most common forms of APP fraud are now. Is romance fraud a growing one?”

“Governor, people who work with the Bank or at the Bank have access to highly sensitive information that could be misused and wrongfully disclosed. Against that background, are you confident that the Bank’s systems and processes are as good as possible to prevent the wrongful disclosure of sensitive Bank information?”

“How about external validation? How often do you externally validate your processes, systems and everything else?”

“Having carried out that review of romance fraud, do you think firms are doing enough to combat APP fraud at the moment, Mr Smart?”

“You are being quite shy about pointing at others who need to take action. Would you say that Government and others would do well to consider potential supply shocks such as climate change, and address them with a view to mitigating the risk of inflation?”

“On the back of a Budget that tackled inflation by reducing it slightly, do you think there is more for Government to do in thinking about the impact of their policies on inflation, Governor?”

“Are they professional auditors in IT security?”

“Ms Greene, you gave an interesting speech in Glasgow—a great place to give a speech, I say—but one of the points you made was about the supply side and monetary policy being a relatively blunt demand-side management tool. When we look at the Budget, does it then point to a wider point that Government need to be more at…”

“Do people feel comfortable expressing concerns, however important the person about whom they are concerned may be?”

“The cultural point is very important. Professor Taylor and Ms Greene, would you concur that the culture of the Bank is open from that perspective, as seen by people external to the Bank?”

“Governor, the Budget announced various measures that Bank staff estimate will reduce inflation by 0.5 percentage points in April. Do you and the panel see those measures as having a longer-lasting effect on inflation and interest rates in the medium term?”

“What about the culture in the Bank? Do you think everyone within the Bank is absolutely clear about the importance of keeping information confidential?”

“I want to move on a separate but related topic, which is your funding model. You are talking about differentiated fees from April 2027. There are various ways that you can do that, such as by stage or complexity. Are you able to shed any light on which direction we are going on that?”

“Is that price point related to the value of a claim or something else? Is it just the overall price point?”

“Presumably, lower-value cases take up as much time as higher-value cases.”

“What discussions do you have with claims management companies about case management and so on? You get feedback from the individual users. What feedback are they giving you?”

“In terms of the metrics, you have seen this drop-off. What is the sense of the FOS—again, this is maybe for Mr Dipple-Johnstone—as to whether you are seeing less meritorious complaints fall away and better evidenced complaints forming a larger proportion or a reduction in poorer complaints? What is the mix? What is you…”

“My final question or set of questions is on the cut in the interest rate from 8% to Bank base rate plus 1%. How are you going to monitor whether this leads to firms delaying resolving cases because the cost of them is lower, if they do not have to pay the 8% but base plus 1%?”

“How have you tested that understanding?”