Speeches by Blake.

“Not far from here, on Whitehall and on Oxford Street, we have seen the proliferation of Harry Potter shops. These are not welcoming for our tourists and we do not believe that they are trading fairly. Will the Minister support me in encouraging His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to work with Westminster city council, wh…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for securing today’s debate. It is timely, both in terms of London’s potential and current contribution to growth and the fair funding review. He mentioned the £4 million per day that London local authorities spend on temporary accommodation. My own local authority, Westminster city council, spen…”

“Mr Hargreaves, your annual report showed that 10% of your revenue is from interest income. Can you tell us from which particular products that interest income might be coming?”

“It is the firm-specific complaints data from the FCA, from December 2024, showing the insurance and pure protection complaint uphold rate.”

“Mr Ward, I want to come on to the uphold rate for Scottish Widows, which is quite high. It was 80% between July and December. Why is that?”

“Do you use third parties to deal with your claims?”

“What specific steps are you taking to improve the claims experience, given that a significant number of complaints are around claims?”

“I wanted to talk about some of the data that we have from the Financial Ombudsman Service. We have seen that the complaint uphold rate reported is now at about 40%. Mr Walker, why do you think that is happening?”

“What confidence can customers have that you are not using this risk around monthly payments just to increase their individual payments? What confidence can the private renters our Chair talked about have that you are not just targeting them for higher payments?”

“That growth in customer numbers is coming from customers who are paying monthly, and we are concerned, based on the risk factors that you have just described, that there is a real premium there.”

“Your annual report has set out that you are seeing more customers paying monthly, and that your profits are increasing. We want to understand what impact monthly payments are having on your business model, and whether you are incentivised towards that. We have highlighted that there is a concern about the premium. Your…”

“Does the Chief Secretary to the Treasury agree that it is because of these fiscal rules that this Government have been able to establish firm foundations for future growth? Will he explain to the House how the Budget stability rule supports the Government with confidence of investors and businesses?”

“What I am getting at is that the losses were higher in the most recent year. Does the Treasury have confidence that it is on the right track in terms of the level of risk?”

“Is the Treasury’s strategic risk appetite currently aligned with the National Wealth Fund?”

“The National Wealth Fund registered a loss in the last year, and that loss was higher than in the previous year. What would it take for the Treasury to intervene on the level of loss? What kind of monitoring are you doing? What would it take for you to intervene?”

“What checks and balances are in place to make sure that within that dialogue there is no political interference around operational decisions? Mr Flint was confident that there is no political interference, but what measures are in place to prevent that?”

“We heard from Mr Flint that he would not characterise it as a dialogue. You have talked quite a bit about a dialogue between the Treasury and the National Wealth Fund. One person’s dialogue is another person’s regular formal meetings. Could you describe what you mean by dialogue between the Treasury and the National We…”

“Most things are accounting.”

“There were higher losses in the last year than there were in the year before. What are the reasons for that?”

“Leaning into your point about risk. The National Wealth Fund has registered quite significant losses. Should the National Wealth Fund be profitable?”