Financial Services and Markets Bill [Lords]

Lauren Edwards Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 10th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

I thank my right hon. and learned Friend the Minister for her work in bringing the Bill to Parliament, and the other place for its scrutiny to date. I should begin by making it clear that before being elected, I worked in supervision at both the Prudential Regulation Authority and the financial market infrastructure directorate at the Bank of England. I associate myself with some of the comments others have made about the importance of the financial services industry not just to London, but to the whole of the UK.

I would like to begin by welcoming the Government’s retention of the proportionality requirements, following debate in the House of Lords. Although I worked on the larger financial companies when I was a frontline supervisor, the proportionality lens was very important in day-to-day decision making, alongside a robust risk framework, not least because as the person who had to deliver a message to a firm, I needed to make sure that I could justify it. In line with that risk-based and proportionate approach to supervision, which I believe is the right one, I wonder if the Bill could make more of the opportunity to stimulate growth in the commercial and specialty insurance markets.

The London insurance market is a world leader, with annual income larger than its five closest competitors combined. It insures everything from planes to nuclear power stations, and has an important role to play in helping the Government to tackle climate change, protect against cyber-threats and unlock investment across the UK. As others have said, it competes internationally against markets in places such as New York, Singapore and Hong Kong. Its market is for sophisticated corporate clients, professional investors, insurance firms, banks and pension funds, rather than the individual purchasing travel insurance ahead of a holiday or pet insurance for the family dog, but currently the supervisory approach is rather similar for those very different types of customers.

Will the Minister and the Government consider whether more could be done in the Bill to differentiate the way we supervise wholesale insurance markets that have professional clients versus retail markets, where the focus, quite rightly, is on protecting the individual consumer? An obvious example to follow would be Australia, the country of my birth, which makes that distinction between wholesale and retail insurance through the Australian Corporations Act 2001, and tailors its supervision accordingly. There is scope in the Bill to consider what a UK version of that approach could look like to ensure that regulation is proportionate while maintaining strong protections where they are most needed.

I support the Government reintroducing the power to be able to act quickly after the access to banking services review reports, but hope that when it is reintroduced it will be narrower in scope to address the concerns raised in the other place that saw the original provision removed from the Bill. It is also important that any action that follows from that review is properly consulted on.

In my constituency, my initial efforts to get a banking hub were frustrated by the focus on access to cash under the current rules, when it is really access to face-to-face banking, advice and services that my constituents want to have, particularly on the Strood side of the River Medway and in the more rural populations on the Hoo peninsula. Digital inclusion is very important for people of all ages, but we know that the over-65s in particular place a lot of value on face-to-face banking services and it is important that they do not lose out. Age UK statistics from September suggest that 1.4 million over-65s are fully digitally excluded. Banking hubs can be part of the digital inclusion plan if we follow the example of places such as Singapore, which I know from a recent visit with the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee has very high levels of digital take-up and success using hubs to assist older citizens with building their confidence in using digital services for banking and public services.

[Matt Rodda (Reading Central) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent point, and I have a similar need in my constituency. Does she agree that the benefits of banking hubs extend to many disabled people, as well as to older residents?

[Lauren Edwards]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend that they should be part of our efforts to ensure that our services are as inclusive as possible.

Moving on to the Government’s aim to halve the burden of the senior managers and certification regime for firms, the cost saving is expected to be material. The Bank of England quotes an estimated £2 billion over a decade. It is important that those who present the biggest systemic risk to financial stability remain on the hook if things go wrong. There were very good reasons why the SMCR was introduced after the 2008 global financial crisis and there is scope for streamlining and shorter processes, but we must remember, as we do that, how few people were accountable for the risks that were run in the lead-up to the crisis and how the taxpayer was left to pick up the bill. Once again, it is a question of balance in proportionality and risk. We must always ensure that we maintain high standards of conduct and accountability.

Finally, on authorised push payment fraud, I believe that during debates in the other place the Minister said that there were other vehicles, such as the Government’s online safety legislation and fraud strategy, to address APP fraud and so provision was not needed in the Bill. However, we should consider whether the tech giants have been required to sufficiently take on their share of the responsibility for tackling this pervasive harm. The economic cost of APP fraud is significant. It was estimated at £450 million from UK businesses and individuals in 2024, although thankfully the Payment Systems Regulator reports that reductions have been achieved since then, thanks to the APP reimbursement policy. Call me cynical, but I think the only way that online tech giants will care about tackling APP fraud is if they also have some responsibility for reimbursement, rather than it all falling to the retail banks. They should also be held to higher standards for preventative measures, such as user identity verification and enhanced fraud monitoring.

To conclude, I welcome the Government’s approach and the progress being made through this legislation, but hope that Ministers will remain open to further refinement. Working in partnership with industry, regulators and Parliament, we have an opportunity to strengthen the UK’s position as a world-leading financial services centre, while maintaining the high standards and consumer protections for which our system is rightly respected.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lauren Edwards Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Tomlinson]

We will be working across Government on the high streets strategy. Treasury Ministers will be working with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Business and Trade. We will make progress on that in the coming weeks, with the strategy to report by the end of the year. We are in the process of working on the details of plans for the review of the pubs and hotels valuation methodology, and I will be happy to engage with my hon. Friend and Members from across the House to get that on a firmer footing for the future.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

The Government’s business rate relief package for pubs has been hugely welcome, but other high street businesses in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors are struggling. Will the Minister consider increasing the small business rate relief threshold to encourage growth and hiring? Over half the high street small businesses surveyed by the Federation of Small Businesses said that they would be in position to invest in or grow their businesses if the threshold were increased.

[Dan Tomlinson]

Around one in three businesses continue to benefit from the small business rates relief and do not pay any business rates at all, with an additional 85,000 benefiting from reduced relief as that is tapered away. At the Budget, we also announced changes to small business rates relief so that we can provide an additional two years of support for those businesses seeking to expand into a second property, to support those businesses to grow and to support their communities and jobs.

Spring Forecast

Lauren Edwards Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

The previous Government presided over a 113,000 increase in the number of young people not in education, employment or training, and the number of youth apprenticeships was cut by 40%. Why does the hon. Gentleman think that unemployment among young people is a challenge? It is because of the decisions that the previous Government made. That is why we are putting more than £800 million into a youth guarantee, it is why we are putting more money into further education—which his Government failed to do—and it is why we are expanding the number of youth apprenticeships. We recognise there is a challenge. The difference between our Government and the hon. Gentleman’s is that we are doing something about it, and they never did.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

I thank the Chancellor for her statement, and welcome the OBR forecast that unemployment will fall to 4.1% by the end of the current Parliament. No doubt that will have been driven by excellent policies such as the youth guarantee and the apprenticeship reforms. The NEET rate remains stubbornly high, though, so may I urge the Chancellor to target any additional headroom that may be available at helping more young people into work and training? Investing in young people is good for them, good for society and good for the UK’s finances, and it is also the best way in which to reduce our welfare bill in the long term.

[Rachel Reeves]

This Government are investing in young people, by ending the two-child limit, investing in further education—which was neglected by the last Government—and increasing the number of young people who can go on to study or take apprenticeships, and, indeed, through the youth guarantee, which is worth more than £800 million. As I said in my statement, though, we want to do more to tackle the legacy that we inherited from the Conservative Government to ensure that more young people have the opportunity of work, training or a college place.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lauren Edwards Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

In the Universal Credit Act 2025, which passed before the summer recess, we reformed the universal credit system to reduce the gap between what people on the health element and those on the standard element got. That reform will help more people into work, as well as the £1 billion package of measures to help people—particularly those who have been long-term unemployed—get back to work. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild) says that that is spending. Actually, getting people into work and paying taxes, as well as paying less on benefits, is good for the economy and good for those people who get back into work.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

T4. Last Friday, I visited Demelza children’s hospice, which does amazing work for children and their families, but it needs certainty and sustainable funding to survive. Will the Chancellor consider extending the children’s hospice grant for the next five years, increasing it in line with inflation, to help it to plan and deliver those vital services?

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (James Murray)]

The Government are investing £100 million to improve hospice facilities and a further £26 million of revenue funding to support children and young people’s hospices this year. That is the biggest investment in hospices in a generation. Details about the funding arrangements for 2026-27 will be set out by the Department of Health and Social Care in due course.

Budget Responsibility Bill

Lauren Edwards Excerpts

Committee of the whole House & 3rd reading
Wednesday 4th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Second Deputy Chairman]

I call Lauren Edwards to make her maiden speech.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak, Madam Chair.

I pay tribute to the many hon. Members who have given such impressive maiden speeches today. It is an honour to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley (Sonia Kumar) who gave such a passionate speech about her constituency, and who certainly did her family very proud. Although she has left her place, may I also commend the hon. Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman) for her excellent speech, which, as somebody born in Australia, I particularly appreciated for its reference to the Australian opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba?

Financial market stability and public trust in announcements on fiscally significant measures are, funnily enough, not issues that come up regularly on the doorstep. But the real-life consequences when these two important pillars of our society are lacking was central to the recent conversations that I had across Rochester and Strood.

The cost of living pressures, already challenging for most, were heightened as families found that they had to pay, on average, hundreds of pounds more just to put a roof over their heads. The cause of that additional pressure—the former Truss Government’s mini-Budget—was a deeply undesirable situation that this Bill seeks to prevent from ever happening again. One reason given for the adverse market reaction to that mini-Budget was the lack of forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility—an omission which, in turn, contributed to a lack of investor confidence in the plans. Political parties, whatever their colour, can have the best policies in the world, but if they are not backed with economic competence and market confidence in those who are holding the purse strings, no one will be better off for them.

We cannot and should not play fast and loose with the economy, so, like many others, I take great comfort from the Bill. That includes the chair of the OBR himself, Robert Hughes, who says that the Bill will address a gap in the current law and

“serve to strengthen the legal foundations for fiscal management.”

It is surely only right that policymakers, when making major fiscal decisions, base those decisions on up-to-date economic and fiscal outlooks, published at the same time to give maximum transparency.

I dwell so much on economic stability as I view it as a necessary precondition for economic growth—this Government’s chief mission—and because, in recent years, there has not been enough focus on the latter in places such as Medway. I am immensely proud to call Rochester and Strood my home and honoured to have been given the opportunity by its residents to represent them here in this place. I will work hard every day to ensure that residents’ voices are heard in this Chamber and to get a better deal for everybody in Rochester and Strood. I will do that by continuing to drive regeneration work in my constituency, work that I began as a former cabinet member on Medway council. I will work with the Government and the private sector to bring more investment to our towns and villages, support the local business community to thrive, and provide more opportunities for young people, so that they do not feel that they need to move away to get on in life.

Rochester and Strood has many strengths, not least the military presence at Brompton barracks, home of the Royal Engineers. The River Medway, which runs the length of the constituency, has so much potential for industry, leisure and tourism, and a very rich maritime history from the days of Chatham dockyard. We have a burgeoning creative community centred at Chatham Intra, developing green industries out on the Hoo peninsula, and high-quality technical colleges and universities. However, we also have high levels of deprivation in the constituency, not enough good-quality and affordable housing, an overburdened hospital, and not enough infrastructure, including health services, public transport and banking services, to support our communities, particularly on the more rural Strood side of the constituency.