Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the consistency of decision-making processes at the (a) Financial Conduct Authority and (b) Financial Ombudsmen Service.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) are independent non-governmental bodies.

Both the FCA and the FOS operate within the framework set by Parliament, and they are directly accountable to Parliament for how they discharge their statutory functions.

This accountability includes a requirement for the FCA and the FOS to produce annual reports and accounts which are laid before Parliament by the Treasury. Both bodies are subject to full audit by the National Audit Office and to scrutiny through committee hearings, including the Public Accounts Committee and the Treasury Committee.

Both organisations maintain arrangements for the independent investigation of complaints against them.

The FOS regularly commissions independent reviews of its service. Most recently, a review carried out by Oaklin Consulting in 2021 found that the FOS is widely respected and viewed as reaching fair and impartial outcomes in the majority of cases.

The FOS and the FCA are operationally independent from one another, but engage extensively on a range of issues through the Wider Implications Framework. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 introduced a statutory duty for the FCA, the FOS and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to co-operate on issues which have or are likely to have significant implications for each other, or for the wider financial services market.