Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the 10 April 2019 Insurance Age article entitled Citizens Advice slams home insurers in dual pricing report, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the finding that home insurance companies make over half of their profits from people defined by the regulator as potentially vulnerable.

The Government is focussed on ensuring that the insurance industry functions well for everyone.

To that end, Government welcomed the launch of the FCA’s General Insurance Pricing Practices Market Study in October 2019. The Market Study is investigating consumer outcomes from insurers’ pricing practices; it is looking specifically at the potential harm suffered by the vulnerable long-standing customers that Citizens Advice refers to in its press release of 10 April 2019. As a part of the Market Study the FCA will consider all potential remedies that may be required to make the market work well for consumers.

The FCA is empowered to address misconduct, and where this has occurred it can undertake investigations and impose financial penalties or order firms to cease certain activities.

The Government is monitoring the outcome of this Market Study and is prepared to ask the FCA to take further action if required.