Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the Financial Conduct Authority's regulation of the funeral care plan sector.

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.

The FCA is an operationally independent regulator. As such it must operate within the framework of statutory duties and powers agreed by Parliament and is therefore accountable to Parliament for how it discharges its statutory functions.

There are also a number of mechanisms in the UK’s domestic framework which allow the Treasury to hold the regulators to account. In addition, Ministers and officials meet regularly with the regulators to discuss policy issues and areas of joint work or interest, while recognising the regulators’ operational independence.