Speeches by West.

“Last year, the FCA changed the way it measures insider trading and concluded that, based on our insights, we have not seen an increase in market abuse over the last three years. Was the FCA measuring it wrongly before that, or is market abuse now under control in the UK?”

“Is there a way of measuring the frequency with which the judgments are published with the outcomes in terms of prevention?”

“I do not know whether Mr Alder wants to come in.”

“On regional levels of unemployment, both the general rate and for young people, what assessment have the experts here made of what works in terms of Government interventions? It is still early days for this Government, but there is an effort around apprenticeships and those sorts of more dirigiste approaches to youth u…”

“Is there an endgame in terms of what the FCA would like to achieve, or is it quite open-ended?”

“You have mentioned prosecutions twice in this session, so I will not go over that. In terms of trying to create a culture change, do you feel that you are making progress on that, or that the marketplace is making progress on that, or is it just going to come out somewhere else?”

“One of the things the Chancellor wanted to do straight after the general election was to remove some of the barriers for business. Do you think that the FCA’s own rules could be a key barrier to greater SME access to finance?”

“Does growing consumer involvement in those retail markets that you have mentioned mean that the FCA must do more to educate new entrants to the market?”

“My questions are on SMEs and lending. Last week there was a call launched by you for input on what the FCA can do to support access to finance for SMEs. What prompted that?”

“Further to that point, I thank the Minister for Europe for going to Cyprus last week, and I am grateful for the conversations between the Prime Minister and the President of Cyprus. My constituency has long-standing people-to-people ties with Cyprus, so what assurances can the Secretary of State give my constituents th…”

“I thank my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Sarah Sackman), who is sitting beside the Minister for Security, for her urgent action today, and my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (David Pinto-Duschinsky), who I know will speak shortly, from the other side of Barnet. The four Barnet MPs…”

“My questions are still on operational matters, Mr Dipple-Johnstone. During the financial year 2024-25, the Independent Assessor found a dramatic increase in cases where customers’ complaints about the FOS concern service standards and a significant decrease in cases deemed to be satisfactory. You have covered some of t…”

“The Independent Assessor has ongoing concerns about how vulnerable consumers are treated. We have spoken a little bit about the difference between a vexatious person, for whom there are correct procedures for dealing with, but what further room for improvement might there be? You have done some, but what other steps co…”

“I am sure Dame Gillian would have some examples. Some of the utility companies used to be awful and they have improved. They are just saying, “Could I just double-check whether there is any vulnerability?” For example, where we have works being done, it is finding out what that—”

“Most of the Committee.”

“Dr Preig, the New Economics Foundation said in its written evidence that we should shift away from numerical fiscal rules, citing Australia and New Zealand as examples of countries that have done this. Bearing in mind that Australia has elections every three years—usually with a centrist outcome due to proportional rep…”

“The panel has already mentioned other countries; for example, we know that the Parliamentary Budget Office in Australia, which is an IFI, provides the costings for opposition party policies. Is this something the OBR should be doing? I am thinking of the day after the Brexit referendum, when it appeared that we were ra…”

“My final question is whether the OBR is under-resourced, or has similar resources, compared with international comparators. Does it have the bandwidth and the number of posts required to do the work?”

“Further to that point, the Migration Advisory Committee is set up to provide quite reliable data, so what work is happening to assess the impact on, let’s say, the aircraft engineer, the chemicals scientist or—really importantly for our NHS goals—the experienced cancer nurse? They are writing to MPs—we have a lobby tod…”

“It is independent, but it is meant to give data so that decisions are based on data.”