Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to tackle the backlog of cases at the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is non-governmental body and is independent from the Treasury.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s rules on how the FOS should handle complaints state that ‘the ombudsman will attempt to resolve complaints at the earliest possible stage’. The FOS should deal with all cases in a timely manner.
Ensuring timely outcomes is one of the FOS’s main priorities for 2025-26, as outlined in its annual Plans and Budget published on 1 April 2025. A number of factors may affect the time it takes for the FOS to resolve complaints that are referred to it. In 2023-24, the FOS resolved over half of its cases within three months.
The FOS regularly publishes data on its casework, including progress against its annual performance targets. The latest complaints data is available at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/data-insight/our-insight and its Annual Reports and Accounts can be found at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/governance-funding/annual-reports-accounts
My officials will continue to raise the important issue of waiting times in their regular meetings with the FOS.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what regulatory safeguards are in place to protect consumers from excessive premium increases following the transfer of life insurance policy liabilities.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Insurers make commercial decisions about the pricing of insurance policies following an assessment of the relevant risks. However, the Government expects that insurers deliver good outcomes to consumers and firms are required to do so under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules.
These rules require firms to ensure their products offer fair value. This means the price paid by consumers must be reasonable compared to the benefits they receive. The FCA monitors firms and has robust powers to act against firms that breach its rules.
The FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority review the terms of transfers of business between insurance providers to ensure an appropriate degree of consumer protection, and the views of both regulators are considered by the Courts as part of the transfer process. The FCA would, for example, expect to see evidence that policyholders would not be adversely affected by any changes to the way their policies will be administered (including with respect to pricing) after a transfer.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to regulate the pricing of legacy life insurance policies following provider transfers.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Insurers make commercial decisions about the pricing of insurance policies following an assessment of the relevant risks. However, the Government expects that insurers deliver good outcomes to consumers and firms are required to do so under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules.
These rules require firms to ensure their products offer fair value. This means the price paid by consumers must be reasonable compared to the benefits they receive. The FCA monitors firms and has robust powers to act against firms that breach its rules.
The FCA and the Prudential Regulation Authority review the terms of transfers of business between insurance providers to ensure an appropriate degree of consumer protection, and the views of both regulators are considered by the Courts as part of the transfer process. The FCA would, for example, expect to see evidence that policyholders would not be adversely affected by any changes to the way their policies will be administered (including with respect to pricing) after a transfer.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the illegal importation of puppies and kittens.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As outlined in our manifesto, the Government is committed to ending puppy smuggling. That is why we are supporting the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill.
The Bill successfully completed its Second Reading in the House of Lords on 5 September 2025. We are fully supportive of this Bill and would like to see it pass through the House of Lords as soon as Parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve community (a) understanding and (b) acceptance of (i) residential and (ii) support services for vulnerable children (A) in the community and (B) in the criminal justice system.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Children’s Social Care National Framework acknowledges that receiving help from children’s social care can be a stigmatising experience and encourages practitioners from first interactions to tackle stigma, build strong relationships with children, young people and families, and communicate clearly and effectively.
Through the Families First Partnership Programme, we are giving children and families access to better local support services to break the cycle of late intervention and help more children and families to stay safely together. Our reforms to Family Help will embed targeted support in the heart of communities, providing a non-stigmatising access point to a range of services to address the needs of the whole family.
We are determined to address the stigma and discrimination faced by children in care and care leavers and ensure they are supported. We are prioritising extending corporate parenting responsibilities to all government departments and relevant public bodies, through measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. This will ensure that policies and services take account of the challenges they face, and remove barriers and provide opportunities for them to achieve and thrive.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of banning animal testing.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to supporting alternatives to animals in science and will publish a strategy to support their adoption. It is not yet possible to replace all animal use due to the complexity of biological systems, so the carefully regulated use of animals in science remains necessary for improving the understanding of how biological systems work, in the development of safe new medicines and in testing chemicals. The legal framework in the UK requires that animals are only ever used in science where there are no validated alternatives available.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what will be in the terms of the Carr Hill review.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The review will consider how health needs are reflected in the distribution of funding through the GP contract, drawing on a range of evidence and advice from experts.
Arrangements for the Carr-Hill review are being finalised. Further details will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will launch a public awareness campaign to support the integration of children’s social care services into local communities.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Through the Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme, the department is giving children and families access to better local support services to break the cycle of late intervention and help more children and families stay safely together. We recognise the crucial role that universal services and community-based early help play in identifying emerging problems and providing early and ongoing support at an early stage.
The department’s reforms to Family Help will embed targeted support in the heart of communities, providing a non-stigmatising access point to a range of services to address the needs of the whole family. The FFP programme guide is clear that local areas should build on the strengths of their universal and community-based early help models when implementing Family Help, and we continue to share learning from the Families First for Children Pathfinder areas to support this.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to introduce a performance framework that (a) publicly tracks local authority delivery of affordable housing and (b) links it to future funding eligibility.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The new Local Government Outcomes Framework, which can be found on gov.uk here, sets out a priority outcome that everyone has access to a decent, safe, secure, and affordable home.
The government has published twelve draft metrics measuring delivery of this outcome, including metrics to measure social housing demand, and number of homes held within council Housing Revenue Accounts. We expect to publish the final metrics for the framework alongside the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement later this year.
Funding decisions for the Affordable Homes Programme are made on an individual basis and are made by our delivery partners, Home England and the GLA. All applications are expected to demonstrate how they meet the usual funding criteria, including value for money.
Asked by: Perran Moon (Labour - Camborne and Redruth)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to encourage partnerships between (a) councils, (b) housing associations and (c) community-led housing groups through matched funding or shared risk models.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As set out in our five-step plan for delivering a decade of renewal for the social and affordable housing, we are committed to strengthening social housing providers’ financial capacity to deliver new homes, including through our new ten-year, £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme.
We also encourage providers to explore opportunities to extend their financial capacity further, and to enable delivery in sensitive, rural areas, by working together to deliver new homes through joint ventures.
Where advice on how to make best use of these arrangements is required, councils, housing associations, and community led-housing groups outside of London can reach out to Homes England’s Self Commissioned Homes Delivery Unit. Councils in England can also seek specialist advice on all aspects of housing delivery from the Local Government Association’s Council Housebuilding Support Service.