Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what her planned timetable is for the implementation of (a) the proposed changes to lender reporting practices to Credit Reference Agencies to mitigate the impact of coerced debt on credit files and (b) the other Financial Inclusion Strategy measures relating to victim-survivors of economic abuse.

The Government published its Financial Inclusion Strategy last year, which sets out an ambitious programme of measures for Government and the financial services sector to improve financial inclusion. The overall Strategy will be reviewed two years from publication to provide an update on the implementation of specific interventions.

The Strategy considers economic abuse as a key theme across the different areas and seeks to support victim-survivors and help them to regain financial independence through industry interventions to increase access to banking services and inform the insurance sector’s approach to economic abuse.

Credit reference agencies, lenders, the expert charity, Surviving Economic Abuse, and wider consumer representatives, are also working closely to develop an approach which improves the impact of coerced debt on victim-survivors’ credit files. This is a complex area with ongoing work needed to ensure any change to the data on a credit file does not negatively affect victim-survivors’ ability to secure credit in future and that they are able to confirm that it is safe for their provider to make changes. Positive progress is being made with updates to follow in due course.