Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2022 to Question 101719 on Safe Hands Plans: Insolvency, whether the Government plans to provide financial support to people who lost money as a result of the collapse of the Safe Hand Funeral plan group.

In January 2021, the government legislated to bring all pre-paid funeral plan providers and intermediaries within the regulatory remit of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) from 29 July 2022. This has ensured that 1.6 million funeral plan customers are, for the first time, protected by compulsory and robust regulation as they seek to put their affairs in order.

Safe Hands Plans went into administration in March 2022. The government understands that this will be very concerning for customers of Safe Hands.

It would not be appropriate for the Government to set the precedent or expectation that it will use taxpayer money to compensate consumers for the misconduct of unregulated firms or products which were not sold as FCA regulated at the time. The Government’s role is instead to ensure that the appropriate regulation is in place to guard against such failures happening.