Financial Services and Markets Bill [Lords]

Vikki Slade Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

I think that most would regard the total removal of consumer protection or regulation as a reckless move. I hope the hon. Gentleman accepts that the Bill will reduce and remove unnecessary and duplicative regulation. I also hope that, where he has constructive, practical suggestions to offer, he will offer them as part of the House’s scrutiny of the Bill.

[Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

I am grateful to the Chancellor for talking about consumer protection, but one group of consumers is missing from the Bill: people who have been victims of economic abuse. They are trapped with financial products through no market failure or fault of their own, even if they want to move to something that is cheaper and therefore a smaller risk to their joint borrower. The Bill does not do anything for those people. Will the Chancellor consider some amendments to help them?

[John Healey]

If the hon. Lady wishes to table amendments for debate and consideration, she should please do so. If she looks at the detail of the financial inclusion strategy that we have published, with some of the measures now being put in place, she will see a recognition of concern for that group of people and some of the measures that may help in the future.

I will return to the four headline purposes and definitions of the content of the Bill, the first of which is the streamlining of regulation, and the second is allowing credit unions to expand, enabling more people to benefit from membership. Thirdly, the Bill modernises consumer protections and access to redress. Fourthly, it supports business lending and investment here in Britain. I am grateful that the Bill has received support from across the sector. UK Finance has confirmed that the Bill supports

“growth and competitiveness while strengthening consumer outcomes”.

TheCityUK has reasonably and rightly said, “Get on with it” and that the priority now needs to be on fully delivering these reforms. Before I move on, I want to pay tribute to my right hon. and learned Friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury for all her work in developing the policy in the Bill and on the issues ranging from financial inclusion to the digitisation of markets.

Let me take those four major sections briefly in turn. First, on regulation, good growth demands an active state that is willing to deliver better regulation and quicker decisions. The Bill does that by updating the regulatory framework to support innovation, speed up decision making and streamline processes that at the moment add little value. It does so in five ways. First, it reduces the number of regulators that firms need to engage with by abolishing the Payment Systems Regulator and consolidating its functions within the Financial Conduct Authority. Secondly, it speeds up regulators’ decision making with ambitious new deadlines, including when deciding to authorise a new firm. The Bill also creates a new provisional licence regime to support innovative new firms while they apply for full authorisation. Thirdly, it strengthens oversight of the regulators. The Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority will now be required to publish long-term strategies, so that regulated firms and consumers can better understand their priorities, and Government and Parliament can better hold them to account against delivery.