Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will hold discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority on the regulation of family trusts sold by building societies.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Treasury Ministers and officials meet with their counterparts at the Financial Conduct Authority often, as part of their regular engagement on various topics.
The Financial Conduct Authority is an independent body responsible for regulating and supervising the financial services industry across the UK. It monitors firms to make sure they provide products that are fair value, and where necessary, it will take action.
Whether a financial services activity is regulated is decided by the Government and Parliament and set out in legislation. The boundary between what is regulated and what is not is called the regulatory perimeter. The Government keeps the regulatory perimeter under constant review, and it engages with the regulators where there are developments which suggest a new activity should be brought within the regulatory perimeter. In addition to this regular engagement, the Financial Conduct Authority publishes an annual perimeter report, which sets out its views on the perimeter.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made a recent assessment with the Secretary of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of the potential merits of making the Listed Places of Worship Scheme (a permanent grant to help support (a) historic buildings central to local communities and (b) the livelihoods of skilled crafts people.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport continues to closely monitor the implementation and impact of the grant scheme through the regular reporting of the grant administrator, EMB. Since 2010, the Government has returned over £350 million to listed places of worship such as churches, synagogues, mosques and temples through the grant scheme. This has helped protect our listed places of worship and enabled them to continue their work as centers of worship and community assets.
The Chancellor has now set departmental budgets for 2025-26, further decisions around individual schemes such as these will be considered by standard departmental allocation processes later this financial year. Funding beyond 25-26 will be set at Phase 2 of the Spending Review.