Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether qualifying stablecoin issuers will be subject to (a) capital and (b) liquidity requirements under the provisions in the draft Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities and Miscellaneous Provisions) (Cryptoassets) Order 2025.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government’s forthcoming regime for cryptoassets will provide the Financial Conduct Authority with the necessary powers for effective regulation of cryptoassets, including the ability to set prudential capital and liquidity requirements for UK stablecoin issuers and other regulated cryptoasset service providers.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she is making an assessment through the Pensions Investment Review of the potential merits of mandating pension fund providers to invest in British stocks and shares.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Interim Report of the Pensions Investment Review was published in November 2024 and included a number of proposals to reform the UK pension system, delivering fewer, larger pension schemes or ‘megafunds’ better able to deliver for savers and better positioned to invest productively.
Throughout the review process, we have taken the approach of working with the pensions industry to improve saver outcomes and increase investment in UK markets. The final report of the Pensions Investment Review will be published in the coming weeks, ahead of the introduction of the Pension Schemes Bill during this parliamentary session.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of updating guidance on the lifetime ISA scheme to clarify the cost of early withdrawal penalties.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Lifetime ISA supports younger people saving for their first home or later life by offering a generous government bonus on up to £4,000 of savings each year. These funds, including the government bonus, can be used to purchase a first home up to the value of £450,000, in the case of terminal illness or from age 60.
Any other withdrawals are subject to a 25% charge on the amount withdrawn. This recoups the government bonus, any interest or growth arising, and a proportion of the individual’s subscriptions to discourage such withdrawals and protect the long-term nature of the account.
While the Government’s website ‘gov.uk’ already explains the rules behind the Lifetime ISA, and includes a worked example of the withdrawal charge, we will consider whether any improvements can be made to that guidance.
Lifetime ISA managers also have a responsibility for ensuring that communications with their customers are clear and concise as part of consumer duty requirements. As part of that communication the manager will normally provide details of the scheme, including the rules around withdrawing funds, whether any charge applies and how that charge is calculated.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with social media and telecommunication companies on reducing Authorised Push Payment Fraud on online platforms.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The government is committed to ensuring that all key sectors play their part to better protect the public and businesses from fraud.
In November, building on existing pledges to prevent fraud, the Home Secretary, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Chancellor wrote to signatories of the Online Fraud Charter and Telecommunications Fraud Sector Charter calling for technology platforms and telecoms providers to go further and faster in their efforts to tackle the fraud that exploits their services.
The government will publish a fraud prevention strategy in due course, which will ensure a unified and coordinated response from government, law enforcement and industry.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions she has had with the Prudential Regulation Authority on the potential merits of changes to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme deposit protection limit.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Eligible deposits held by UK banks, building societies and credit unions that are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000. The PRA sets this limit and is required to independently review the limit every five years.
On 31 March, the PRA launched a consultation on the outcome of its most recent review and proposed an inflation-based increase in this limit to £110,000. Any changes to the limit must be approved by the Treasury and the Government would carefully consider any changes proposed by the PRA following the conclusion of this consultation.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the annual cost to the Exchequer of the Lifetime ISA in terms of (a) reduced tax revenue and (b) value paid bonus payments in (i) 2024–25 and (ii) 2025–26.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The cost of the tax relief element of the Lifetime ISA is included within tax relief cost of all ISAs, which can be found in the Non-structural tax relief statistics publication, specifically table 5.16.
A forecast of estimated bonus paid is published within the OBR’s Economic and fiscal outlook, in the ‘detailed forecast tables: expenditure’ table. Specifically, this can be found within the detailed table breakdown in tab 4.11, row 7.
Links:
https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2025/
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the the Financial Services Compensation Scheme deposit protection limit for registered businesses.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Eligible deposits held by UK banks, building societies and credit unions that are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000. This limit is set by the PRA and applies to eligible retail accounts as well as accounts of eligible registered businesses. The PRA is required to independently review the limit every five years.
On 31 March, the PRA launched a consultation on the outcome of its most recent review and proposed an inflation-based increase in this limit to £110,000. Any changes to the limit must be approved by the Treasury and the Government would carefully consider any changes proposed by the PRA following the conclusion of this consultation.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with the mid-tier banking sector on the Bank of England’s consultation on changes to thresholds for the minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities, published on 15 October 2024; and if she will meet with sector representatives to discuss how it can support the (a) growth and (b) international competitiveness of the economy.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Bank of England sets MREL requirements independently, though the government takes a close interest in the policy and engages regularly on it both with the Bank of England and with the banking sector, including mid-tier firms. The government’s engagement has included and will continue to include consideration of the impacts of MREL policy on the UK’s economic growth and international competitiveness. In recent months, the Chancellor and I have hosted a series of forums, including with small to mid-sized quoted companies, as the government works towards developing the first Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, which forms part of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the (a) scope and (b) remit is of the Treasury review into Financial Ombudsman Service.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Treasury will examine whether the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), is delivering its role as a simple, impartial dispute resolution service which quickly and effectively deals with complaints against financial services firms, and which works in concert with our Financial Conduct Authority which regulates the sector.
The review will focus, in particular, on a range of points that have been raised through the recent Call for Evidence on the Growth and Competitiveness Strategy. This will include addressing concerns around:
The review builds on the announcements the Chancellor made at Mansion House, as well as modernising the FCA’s rules for dispute resolution. As part of the review, the government will consider whether any legislative changes are necessary to ensure that we have a dispute resolution system in the UK which is fit for a modern economy.
Asked by: Mark Garnier (Conservative - Wyre Forest)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent progress her Department has made on the development of digital gilts; and what assessment she has made on their potential impact on the UK financial system.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
On 18 March 2025, the Chancellor of the Exchequer launched the procurement process for the pilot Digital Gilt Instrument (DIGIT) issuance.
Following the announcement, HMT and UK Debt Management Office published the first step in the process, which seeks views from industry to inform the development and delivery of the pilot DIGIT issuance. HMT issued a Preliminary Market Engagement Notice through the contract finder service. These publications provide further information on the scope of the pilot and seek views from potential suppliers and the financial services sector, to inform the development and delivery of DIGIT. This includes information on the current landscape of services available or in development in the UK and what potential investors want to see from a DIGIT issuance.
The market engagement exercise is the first step in our process. A formal tendering process is expected to be launched in late Spring 2025, with DLT suppliers being appointed by late Summer 2025.
The government bought forward secondary legislation at the end of the last year that will enable changes to be made to existing regulations relevant to issuing Government debt within the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS). The current regulations may be unsuitable for a digital issuance and need to be temporarily modified to enable an issuance. Our market engagement is also intended to assist with understanding what elements of these laws need to be changed. Any necessary amendments will require HMT to lay a Statutory Instrument.