Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kirsten Oswald and Harriett Baldwin

Monday 13th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Harriett Baldwin]

I will follow this up with the hon. Gentleman, but I can confirm—I am sure he shares my delight—that north Wales has been selected for the global hub outside the US for all the maintenance and repair of the avionics.

[Kirsten Oswald (East Renfrewshire) (SNP)]

The Secretary of State will have seen reports of armed drones operated from RAF Waddington with a kill list targeting UK citizens. If those reports are right, what happened to the commitment to come to the House at the earliest opportunity if lethal force was used in self-defence, and does the kill list extend beyond geographical areas where military action has been authorised by this House?

National Shipbuilding Strategy

Debate between Kirsten Oswald and Harriett Baldwin

Wednesday 8th February 2017 Westminster Hall

[Kirsten Oswald (East Renfrewshire) (SNP)]

rose—

[Harriett Baldwin]

If Members want to take up my time, I will give way.

Bank Branch Closures

Debate between Kirsten Oswald and Harriett Baldwin

Thursday 30th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Harriett Baldwin)]

It is a great pleasure to be able to respond on the Government’s behalf to this really excellent debate. I congratulate the hon. Members for City of Chester (Christian Matheson) and for Ceredigion (Mr Williams) and my hon. Friend the Member for Wells (James Heappey) on securing it, and thank them for giving me the opportunity to update the House on what is going on in this area. I also thank the Backbench Business Committee for scheduling such an interesting debate on a Thursday afternoon. I also thank the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell). It is a great honour for me to have the shadow Chancellor respond to the debate. He only lost one member of his team during it, so congratulations to him.

I need to start with a confession. I am a rural Member of Parliament. I spend four days a week up here in London. If I think about it, I actually cannot remember when I last went into a bank branch. I have been to the cashpoint, here and in my constituency, but I also ask myself when, these days, do I even use cash? The only place seems to be in the House of Commons Tea Room. I understand contactless is coming there soon, so where will we all be then?

Customer behaviour is clearly changing. The number of times that we all use a branch in any given year has dropped almost 30%. The most recent data that I have from the BBA show that branch transactions have fallen to 270 million branch customer contacts in 2016. If my maths is right, that is an average of four per year.

[Kirsten Oswald]

Does the Minister accept that some of the downturn in customer bank transactions is because bank branches have closed?

[Harriett Baldwin]

The hon. Lady is right to ask that question, but if customers were surging into branches and transacting valuable business, the banks would not be being as radical as they are.

Financial Conduct Authority

Debate between Kirsten Oswald and Harriett Baldwin

Monday 1st February 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Harriett Baldwin)]

I am left with very little time to cover such a wide-ranging debate. I congratulate the Backbench Business Committee and my hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy (Guto Bebb) on securing this debate.

I think we can all agree that it is important that in the Financial Conduct Authority we have an organisation to keep financial markets honest for our constituents and for markets, which play a crucial role in our economy. We all want financial services to be on the side of our constituents—the people who want to work hard, do the right thing and get on in life. It is therefore vital that financial services display and uphold the highest standards of behaviour and treat their customers fairly.

The House will no doubt be aware that most small business lending is not regulated. Obviously, when an independent regulator is involved, we need to ensure that the right people are doing the job. Last week the Chancellor announced a number of new appointments to the FCA board, including an excellent new chief executive. As the Chancellor said, Andrew Bailey was the outstanding candidate to be the next chief executive. He brings with him a wealth of experience of financial services regulation in the United Kingdom. He is simply the most respected, most experienced and most qualified person in the world to do the job. However, I want to put on record the Government’s gratitude to Tracey McDermott, the acting chief executive, for all her hard work over the past four months.

Last week we also appointed four new non-executive directors: Bradley Fried, Baroness Hogg, Ruth Kelly and Tom Wright. The new directors provide a balanced mix, on the gender front and in terms of their public and private sector experience and their experience of politics, as well as a wealth of knowledge of consumer issues and the financial services sector more generally, adding an invaluable independent challenge to the board. We believe that the new appointments will strengthen the organisation, and, by ensuring that it has the best possible leadership, will help the FCA to remain a strong, tough regulator that protects consumers and ensures that financial markets work for the benefit of the whole economy.

There are clearly still challenges ahead for the FCA, but it is worth remembering the positive steps that it has already taken. It is in the process of implementing the new senior managers and certification regime, which includes applying enforceable conduct rules to anyone who is involved in the financial services activity of a bank. It has introduced improved whistleblowing requirements, and a new remuneration code that will ensure that individuals are not rewarded for taking excessive risks. It has taken action to protect consumers, such as the regulation of consumer credit, which has included capping the cost of payday lending to protect consumers from unfair costs.

FCA regulation is already having a dramatic impact on the payday market. Indeed, the FCA found that the volume of payday loans had fallen by 35% in the first six months since it took over regulation in April 2014. There has been a new focus on competition in banking and other markets, such as excellent work on Fintech and the innovation hub. Last year the Treasury and the FCA jointly launched a financial advice market review, which is designed to make financial help more accessible and affordable for all our constituents. It is also worth highlighting the role of the Financial Ombudsman Service, to which Members may wish to refer their constituents when they have problems with financial services firms.

The Government are as keen as those who are present tonight to resolve the matters that have been raised by a range of Members. We heard from not only my hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy, but from the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann), my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier), the hon. Member for Motherwell and Wishaw (Marion Fellows), my hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire (Craig Tracey), the hon. Member for Ceredigion (Mr Williams), my hon. Friend the Member for South West Devon (Mr Streeter), the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ruth Cadbury), my hon. Friend the Member for Hazel Grove (William Wragg), the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald), my hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset (Mr Rees-Mogg), the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Michelle Thomson), my hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge) and the hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Ian Blackford), as well as the hon. Member for Salford and Eccles (Rebecca Long Bailey).

A number of points have been raised, and I shall deal with them in turn. The issue of the banking culture review was raised by the hon. Member for Salford and Eccles, my hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy, and the hon. Member for Bassetlaw. The first time I personally heard about the FCA’s decision to discontinue the review was when the story broke in the media on new year’s eve. We have made it abundantly clear to the House that no Treasury Minister or official was involved in the FCA’s decision, and the FCA has made it clear that it did not inform the Treasury before the decision was made public.

[Kirsten Oswald]

Will the Minister give way?

[Harriett Baldwin]

I would love to, but I do not have time.

Connaught Income Fund

Debate between Kirsten Oswald and Harriett Baldwin

Tuesday 12th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Harriett Baldwin)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy (Guto Bebb) on securing this debate, chairing the all-party group and raising the serious issues concerning the Connaught Income Fund. His constituents and, clearly, those of many other colleagues have been seriously affected by this event and have written to me many times.

Many investors have lost substantial sums and, indeed, sometimes their life savings as a result of the events involving the Connaught funds. I am very much aware that that has caused real hardship for people across the country. It is important that the FCA and the all-party group get to the bottom of this matter and try to secure the best outcome for investors in these funds. Those who are responsible should face justice for their actions. It is equally important that steps are taken to ensure that this situation does not arise again in the future.

I reassure my hon. Friend and all other Members that the Financial Conduct Authority takes this matter extremely seriously.

[Kirsten Oswald]

rose—

[Harriett Baldwin]

Given the lack of time, I will make a bit of progress. If I have time, I will come back to the hon. Lady.

The FCA also knows that what happened with the Connaught funds has caused serious distress to many investors and continues to work closely on this case to secure the best possible outcome. As my hon. Friend the Member for Aberconwy said, the Connaught funds comprised three separate funds, income series 1, series 2 and series 3. In total, approximately £147 million was invested in the funds, which, as we know, were unregulated collective investment schemes. By definition, such schemes are not subject to direct regulation by the FCA or, previously, by the Financial Services Authority.

In the case of Connaught investment funds, many of the usual protections and safeguards that protect investors in regulated funds were absent, owing to the unregulated nature of some of the entities involved. On this point, I want to touch on two main issues. The first concerns the actions taken by the FCA to try to protect consumers, despite most of the entities involved being unregulated. That includes the ongoing work to secure a fair and proper outcome for investors. The second involves the steps that can be taken to ensure that this sort of situation does not happen again.

First, despite the schemes being unregulated, the FCA has taken a number of significant steps to try to protect customers right from when the first problems arose. In May 2011, the FCA, which was at the time the FSA, altered Tiuta’s permissions on issuing new regulated mortgage lending. Shortly thereafter, it wrote to investors who might have been mis-sold the fund and all financial advisers who sold the fund, asking them to review the sales and to contact customers where there may have been the risk of unsuitable advice. The FCA has continued to provide updates on the situation via its website. Once the funds were suspended and steps were taken to wind them down, the FCA announced on 16 July 2014 that it would support a negotiated settlement to address investor losses.

As hon. Members may know, the FCA initially supported the negotiations between the parties involved, as it believed that doing so was in the best interests of investors. However, having extended the negotiations more than once, in March 2015 the FCA announced its decision to withdraw from them. The FCA decided that a further extension to the negotiation period was not in the best interests of investors. I am sure my hon. Friend will understand that as the negotiations were voluntary and confidential, the FCA cannot provide specific details on what happened during the negotiations.

--- Later in debate ---

[Harriett Baldwin]

I shall give way to the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) first.

[Kirsten Oswald]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way. In response to a written question I was referred to the record of ministerial meetings to find out when a Treasury Minister last met representatives of the FCA. Does the Minister understand my astonishment at finding not a single bilateral meeting between the Treasury at ministerial level and the FCA in the two years from October 2013 to September 2015? Does she appreciate that her Government seem to be asleep at the wheel as the FCA fails to clean up the financial services sector?

[Harriett Baldwin]

The hon. Lady has been assiduous in tabling a number of parliamentary questions. I think I am right in saying that they have been put on the record in the Library. I encourage other hon. Members to have a look and see the record that she has managed to get from the FCA in writing.

I am sure that other hon. Members who have constituents who have suffered losses in the Connaught Income Fund will welcome the reassurance that the FCA is doing its utmost to secure the best possible outcome for investors, and that they will support the FCA in its current investigations.