Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has had discussion with the Financial Conduct Authority on the racial disparity in motor insurance premiums identified in the Citizens Advice report, Discriminatory pricing: exploring the ethnicity penalty in the insurance market, published in March 2022.
Treasury Ministers and officials have regular meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors on an ongoing basis.
Under the Equality Act 2010 insurers cannot use race as a risk factor when determining the price of insurance. The Government is also determined that insurers should treat their customers fairly and firms are required to do so under the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) rules.
The FCA’s rules requires firms to ensure their products offer fair value (i.e. the price a consumer pays for an insurance product or service to be reasonable compared to the overall benefits they can expect to receive). The FCA has powers to act against firms that fail to comply.