I am sorry to interrupt, but I think that we have had this debate before. It is not right to say that the primary purpose of the FCA is to give the consumer pride of place. That is not what it says in the statute. We had endless discussions about this when this was going through the House, and the Government were adamant that it was an economic regulator and that the main focus had to be on the efficiency of the markets that it served. I think that the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, made the same point on Wednesday. I understand why the Minister would want to say that, and I am sure from discussions with the FCA that it has regard to consumers and their interests—but there is no consumer representative on the board of the FCA. It has a consumer panel, but it is not allowed to have a main position. I think that there is a representative with an Australian background on the board who has some expertise in consumer affairs, but that is not the same thing as building in from the bottom and ensuring throughout the work of the FCA that it focuses on the consumer, which is the impression that the Minister gives.
Financial Guidance and Claims Bill [HL]
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Stevenson of Balmacara
(Labour)
in the House of Lords on Monday, 11 September 2017.
It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL)
and
Debate on bills on Financial Guidance and Claims Bill [HL].
About this proceeding contribution
Reference
783 c2280 Session
2017-19Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamberLibrarians' tools
Timestamp
2018-01-25 17:26:47 +0000
URI
http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Lords/2017-09-11/1709117000020
In Indexing
http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Lords/2017-09-11/1709117000020
In Solr
https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Lords/2017-09-11/1709117000020