Financial Services and Markets Bill [HL]

Lord Bishop of Manchester Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 8th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Manchester]

My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register. As with all my colleagues on these Benches—not that there seem to be many of them here today—my stipend, pension contributions, housing and working costs are provided by the Church Commissioners for England. As an issuer of bonds, something we started when I was chairing, it is a regulated body.

I welcome the intention behind the Bill to modernise our financial services and to support economic growth. However, our aim must be to enable economic opportunity for all communities. Amid what is still a cost of living crisis, we must measure economic success not only by the growth of the economy itself but by how it promotes the dignity of those most in need and protects individuals at times when the system fails. It is a large Bill, so I will focus on just a few main aspects: access to credit, credit unions, consumer protection, and access to wider banking services. These are probably the issues that are most appropriate for one who is a bishop, not a banker.

Access to fair and affordable credit is not simply a financial issue but a matter of dignity, equal opportunity and participation in community life. Deepening poverty across the UK is making it more difficult for people to break free from debt. Almost everybody needs to borrow money at some point in their life, yet too often it is those with the least who end up paying the most. They face a poverty premium; they have fewer options. Christians Against Poverty, a wonderful charity, has found that its clients are now borrowing money simply to pay for food, clothing, rent and utility bills. For many, credit has ceased to be a tool for flexibility; it has become a necessity for meeting basic needs, and that drives them deeper into debt.

Debt fosters feelings of shame, fear and hopelessness, which often prevent families from then reaching out for support. Christians Against Poverty states that 46% of clients it surveyed had gone as far as considering ending their own life because of debt-related pressures. We cannot overlook the emotional toll of financial insecurity on real lives. The inaccessibility of credit for underserved communities creates a significant gap in financial policy, where these effects could be alleviated. As such, I strongly welcome measures in the Bill aimed at addressing the problem. These efforts must be sustained and targeted, and we must ensure that those facing the greatest barriers are not left behind.

I was first involved in setting up a credit union almost 40 years ago. It astonished me just how small the sector was in England. It has grown a bit since then: 2.16 million people in Great Britain are now members of a credit union, and we have a credit union for Church of England and other clergy. But Britain still compares poorly with other similar economies in what is, across many nations, a network of trusted, community-based saving and borrowing solutions, particularly for those communities least well served by conventional banking. Hence, I strongly welcome the measures in the Bill to promote the expansion of credit unions, including, critically, the broadening of common bonds to increase the number of people able to access this kind of credit.

This measure is particularly important for serving those in more deprived areas, where they may not previously have had access to banks or similar opportunities. While expanding credit unions will go a long way towards improving access for many customers, it remains the case that certain communities, such as migrants or individuals with less financial literacy, remain excluded from the credit opportunities offered by the mainstream banks. What might the Government consider doing further to improve transparency and accountability among mainstream lenders in how they serve marginalised groups alongside an expanded credit union sector?

I turn to financial protections. Increasing credit availability is an important step forward, but it must be met with adequate protections to prevent mis-selling or overborrowing and to ensure proper redress when things go wrong. While I understand that the proposed changes to the Financial Ombudsman Service are designed to streamline the process, I am concerned that stricter criteria there may make the whole process more inaccessible and less robust. Some proposals, such as stricter time limits on making complaints, may present barriers to certain consumers making claims in the first place, particularly when they discover the issue only after many years.

I also echo concerns expressed by the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, on the proposed reforms to the Consumer Credit Act. While modernisation is clearly needed, the shift away from detailed legal protections towards regulator-led rules may, as others have said, reduce parliamentary scrutiny and weaken established routes to redress. It may also reduce certainty for consumers, making it less clear when they are entitled to redress and how they can secure it. Again, that is likely to have the greatest impact on those who are less financially literate and who may struggle to navigate complex financial systems alone.

Furthermore, existing protections, such as those offered by the consumer duty, do not provide protection to communities which are excluded from credit access in the first place. Without real efforts from mainstream providers to incorporate underserved groups in credit opportunities, those most in need of support will continue to fall through the cracks. Therefore, it is essential that protections evolve alongside access, ensuring that increased participation in financial services does not come at the expense of security. I will follow with interest the debate about how much ought to be in the Bill and how much can safely be left for later regulation. I welcome the Government’s proposed scheme to improve financial literacy in schools by 2028, but that is no replacement for adequate routes to redress, democratic accountability, and fair and equal access to credit for everyone who needs it.

Finally, while I suspect that, nowadays, many of us in your Lordships’ House access all our banking services electronically—I cannot remember when I last went into a bank or even rang one up—there are those in our communities who need access to in-person banking services beyond mere cash. Financial exclusion fosters real-world isolation. Many of the communities that the Church supports, such as elderly and disabled populations, face greater barriers to financial independence in an increasingly digital age. I am not sure that we are doing quite as much as we should in the Bill to ensure that in-person services, beyond cash, are available in both urban and rural settings.

The Bill presents an important opportunity, not only to modernise our financial system but to ensure that it serves the common good. We must reflect not only on how the Bill will enable growth but on how it might promote justice, equality of opportunity, and dignity for the communities that are the most in need. I look forward to engaging with its progress through your Lordships’ House.

Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill

Lord Bishop of Manchester Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 13th May 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Manchester]

My Lords, I admit to being a little nervous as a non-lawyer entering a debate that has already heard from so many distinguished minds. Some may think that they have heard enough from the lawyers and do not need to hear from me.

I am grateful to the Minister for introducing the Bill. I concur with other noble Lords in hoping that it will be swiftly passed into law. The many victims of this long-running scandal and injustice must now benefit without further undue delay. As the noble Lord said in opening this debate, Parliament is not the usual route by which we overturn wrongful convictions. I echo others today, as well as what I have said in debates on other matters, in believing that we need to tread very carefully when acting in ways that move us on to territory more normally occupied by the courts and the judiciary. That is particularly important in Britain, because we give such huge weight to precedent. The Minister has, I am pleased to note, assured us that this Bill should not be considered a setting of precedent, and others have concurred. However, I think that that aspect of what we are doing merits, albeit briefly, deeper consideration. What one Government do today, no matter how warily, may be drawn on by future Governments in ways that stretch the original intentions well beyond breaking point. Our best defence against that, perhaps our only defence, is to set down very clear principles, not merely general assertions, at the outset.

Things happen very differently in different places. American presidents have regularly pardoned political cronies who have committed crimes in their support. I doubt whether many of us in your Lordships’ House would be surprised if a Republican victory later this year resulted in mass pardons, even for convicted insurrectionists. Closer to home, it is not beyond imagination that far-right movements in Europe, notorious for combining political organisation with street violence, might, should they gain a say in government, seek to overthrow their criminal associates’ convictions. Let me pick a cause closer to my own heart: let us suppose a future coalition Government here, needing the support of a minority party more to the left, were told that the price to pay included quashing the convictions of environmental protesters.

The question is how we in Britain safeguard the rule of law for the long term, while ensuring that the Post Office victims are speedily exonerated. Let me briefly offer four simple criteria; I hope that in responding to the debate the Minister will indicate whether he agrees, or has better ones to propose. I am not at all precious about my suggestions, but I am precious about respecting the role and political independence of our judges and courts. I believe that this is how we can best avoid future claims of precedent.

First, evidence has emerged since those original convictions that sets out so clearly the failings of the Horizon software that had that information, which was known within the Post Office and to Fujitsu at the time, been made available to the defence, it is unimaginable that any jury would have convicted. Indeed, it is doubtful whether any judge would have allowed a case to proceed that far. For me, this is the most compelling argument for the course of action we are taking today. Our justice system is based solidly on evidence, and where fresh and powerful evidence emerges, we need to be able to take it into account in a timely and effective way.

Secondly, I note the arguments of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Burnett of Maldon, who reminded us that, unless cases are looked at individually, there is a risk that someone who had stolen money might now be let off. However, the principle that it is better that a guilty person go free than an innocent one be convicted lies at the root of our British justice system. It is enshrined in the requirement that guilt be proven beyond reasonable doubt—yet it goes back much further, to the Book of Genesis and a conversation between Lot and God over the fate of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. To save time, I will leave noble Lords to look that up for themselves.

Thirdly and importantly, we are well clear of partisan political territory here. Although I know that we in this House and the other place can proceed to legislate on a simple majority, were any major grouping in your Lordships’ House to feel that the Bill contained political bias in any direction, it would not be safe for us to proceed.

Finally, as so many noble Lords have said, we are dealing with such a large number of convictions that handling them in any other way would tie up the court system and delay justice for the Post Office victims and even for others in unconnected cases, who could not get their matters to court. Hence it is that combination—the compelling new evidence, the presumption of innocence, the political neutrality and the sheer number of cases—that allows me to offer my support to the Bill.

I look forward to hearing what other criteria noble Lords adduce in favour of its passing—some have already done so—and I look forward to the response of the Front Benches in their winding-up speeches.