Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to reduce levels of unsecured debt.

The government established an independent Financial Policy Committee (FPC), giving the FPC a primary objective to identify, monitor and take action to remove or reduce systemic risks with a view to protecting and enhancing financial stability. The FPC’s June 2017 Financial Stability Report (FSR), published on 27 June, assesses recent trends in unsecured debt in the consumer credit market. The FSR notes that consumer credit has been growing rapidly, but that loss rates on consumer credit lending are low at present. The June FSR announced that the FPC will: bring forward its assessment of stressed losses on consumer credit lending in the Bank’s 2017 annual stress test; and support the Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority in their intention to publish their expectations of lenders in the consumer credit market.