Speeches by Dean.

“Might that be one of the issues that the Government are having in understanding the value of the work you do? It is possible to add up the number of people you employ to work on regulation and attach a monetary figure to it, but much more difficult to discern the value in terms of the benefits of regulation—the stabili…”

“But, specifically, how does the regulator contribute to that? We are all aware of how important it is to the economy.”

“I accept that, but that is qualitative feedback. You are up against the figures that the Government are quoting: £70 billion—worth of red tape costs. Is one of the difficulties in making the case for regulation that you cannot have hard figures to back it? It is a counterfactual, really—how much money have you saved th…”

“I am struck that some of the events that we are talking about happened in 2021 or 2022, but recently we had the news that the FCA plans to automatically delete its emails after a year. We know it is not a data storage issue, because data storage is pretty cheap. I think the FCA is on the record as saying that it is to …”

“I admit that there will be plenty of emails that do not need to be kept for a long time, but I guess the concern is who gets to judge which emails need to be kept. We talked earlier about the potential increased risk of consumer harm that is coming down the track, but at the same time we are shutting down an element of…”

“I appreciate that you cannot say too much, but can I try to add some specifics? If the Supreme Court judgment goes the way people expect it may in widening the number of cases taken into account—the wider commission arrangements—will your scheme include wider commission arrangements? Will the scheme be mandatory, and h…”

“What you do now is obviously up to you, though, and I know you have been engaging with firms. It has been reported to me that you have not been engaging with some of the consumer law firms involved in bringing forward these proceedings. They are saying that the consultation has been very focused on what firms want to d…”

“But not consumer law firms?”

“I can name a couple if you prefer. There is Sentinel and Courmacs, which I know represent thousands of clients. They say that they feel a bit shut out of the consultative process so far. Would you engage with consumer law firms?”

“The reason I ask that question is that the situation is not a straightforward case of whether or not the commissions are there. There have been all sorts of allegations about volume bonuses, advance commission payments and other kinds of complex incentives, and the firms have been quite clever in writing those contract…”

“I appreciate that you have been going for almost two and a half hours now—and we could probably go for another hour on this—so I will hand back to the Chair.”

“Concerns have been growing over China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific region. Given the strategic importance of the Taiwan strait to global security, what has been the Department’s response to those rising tensions?”

“Good afternoon. I am struck that some of the priorities are areas that are coming under enormous political pressure at the moment. In particular, you talked about working to implement diversity, equity and inclusion metrics into its operations. We in this Committee have seen the FCA and PRA retreating from introducing …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I thank the right hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Graham Stuart) for securing the debate today and for articulating the key points of the Act so well. I cannot move on without also thanking the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for her inspiring …”

“For the record I will repeat the question. I noticed in your answers that you paid attention to implementing diversity, equity and inclusion metrics. That is one of the Crown Estate’s priorities. Inclusive communities is something you have spoken about. We have seen other bodies, such as the FCA and PRA, come under pre…”

“Finally, because I have mentioned most of the other priorities, what does delivering value mean for you? It is a priority of the Crown Estate, but what does delivering value mean for you?”

“Another stated priority is working towards net zero. That is another thing that is subject to a lot of political discussions. Some people are saying that we need to retrench and think about energy security first because of the way the world is going. How would that impact on the Crown Estate’s priorities as well if tha…”

“I rise to speak in favour of new clause 35 and amendment 174, both in my name, as well as the amendments tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson). The Corporate Parenting Forum was one of the more enjoyable committees I was on when I was a local councillor. I agree with the hon. Member for Sou…”

“Can I draw you on a ceiling to this, then? It is about 5% of the market now. We talked about Mastercard and Visa having the rest. Could it be 40%, 50% or 60%, or is it 10%, 15% or 20%? Can I draw you into having a guess on how disruptive this could be?”

“You segued into my questioning because I was going to ask you a bit about open banking as an innovation in the market. It has been growing but it is still quite a small part, less than 5%. Could you explain to us what the potential of open banking is? Could it eat up a significant chunk of this market in the future, or…”