Tomlinson Report

Thursday 19th December 2013 Ministerial Corrections

The following is an extract from the response given by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, the hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Sajid Javid) to the hon. Member for North East Derbyshire (Natascha Engel) during the Westminster Hall debate on the Tomlinson report on 17 December 2013.

[Natascha Engel]

I am sorry to press this, but one of the very serious issues is the foot dragging, and the more time that is taken, even if it is under the guise of making sure that every i is dotted and every t is crossed, means more small and medium-sized businesses are unnecessarily going under, so the time pressure is really serious. I want to re-emphasise that the FCA must be put under pressure by the Treasury to ensure that the review is done as quickly as possible.

[Sajid Javid]

I agree with the gist of the hon. Lady’s comments, but I am not sure what she means by foot dragging. The report was published on 22 October. On 23 October, it was given to the FCA, and, within days, the FCA announced that it would investigate, so it would be wrong to accuse the FCA or anyone else of foot dragging, but she is right to suggest that we must stay on top of this and make sure it is handled in a timely way.

[Official Report, 17 December 2013, Vol. 572, c. 166WH.]

Letter of correction from Sajid Javid:

An error has been identified in the response provided during the Westminster Hall debate on the Tomlinson report.

The correct response should have been:

[Sajid Javid]

I agree with the gist of the hon. Lady’s comments, but I am not sure what she means by foot dragging. The report was submitted to BIS on 22 October. On 23 October, it was given to the FCA, and, within days, the FCA announced that it would investigate, so it would be wrong to accuse the FCA or anyone else of foot dragging, but she is right to suggest that we must stay on top of this and make sure it is handled in a timely way.