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.

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.