Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she made of the potential implications for her policies of the report by the Financial Regulators Complaints Commissioner on the Financial Conduct Authority's handling of Safe Hands Plans Limited, published on 11 March 2025.

I am sympathetic to all the Safe Hands customers who have lost money, following the collapse of the firm in 2022.

Once concerns were raised about the funeral plan market, in 2021 the Government legislated to bring all pre-paid funeral plan providers and intermediaries within the regulatory remit of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This made it illegal to sell pre-paid funeral plans without authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority, protecting 1.6 million customers and their families.

The FCA has published its response to the Financial Regulator Complaints Commissioner. The FCA has been clear that it is not possible to immediately act on every piece of anonymous intelligence they receive and Safe Hands failed to meet the threshold for authorisation due to underlying issues with their business model.

We support the FCA's handling of Safe Hands, and it is clear that they acted reasonably in this case, as they had a clear plan to properly scrutinise Safe Hands’ business during the authorisations process. As the Commissioner acknowledges, there is also no evidence that alternative action from the FCA would have led to different outcomes for Safe Hands customers.