Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to tackle the backlog of cases at the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is non-governmental body and is independent from the Treasury.

The Financial Conduct Authority’s rules on how the FOS should handle complaints state that ‘the ombudsman will attempt to resolve complaints at the earliest possible stage’. The FOS should deal with all cases in a timely manner.

Ensuring timely outcomes is one of the FOS’s main priorities for 2025-26, as outlined in its annual Plans and Budget published on 1 April 2025. A number of factors may affect the time it takes for the FOS to resolve complaints that are referred to it. In 2023-24, the FOS resolved over half of its cases within three months.

The FOS regularly publishes data on its casework, including progress against its annual performance targets. The latest complaints data is available at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/data-insight/our-insight and its Annual Reports and Accounts can be found at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/governance-funding/annual-reports-accounts

My officials will continue to raise the important issue of waiting times in their regular meetings with the FOS.