Speeches by Glen.

“Can I come in on this point? Essentially, what happened is that the FCA relied on the work being done in this Treasury review before they made a judgment on whether they would do anything. If the essence of the outcome of this endeavour over the last few months is, “We’ve got near to it, but we haven’t really identifie…”

“How would you say this Committee can best scrutinise progress in that domain and weigh it against best practices elsewhere, in financial services, across Whitehall, and beyond?”

“Can I turn to efficiency savings? The previous Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, talked about the real-time cross-departmental spending tracker. He said it would take two to three years. A recent NAO report found that Departments lacked the granular data to track basic service costs. There is a projected £…”

“Turning to the lifetime ISA replacement, I address these questions to the Economic Secretary. Given that the Government committed, in the Budget last year, to replace or refine the existing lifetime ISA, and given the latest UK house price index shows that the average price paid by a first-time buyer in London for a ho…”

“I am not qualified to make observations about the enduring value for money or effectiveness of Palantir, but I am concerned that Mandelson’s dynamics with every aspect of this Government have toxified the integrity of their processes. Unless the Minister can make absolutely clear what quiet, unspoken influences Mandels…”

“Thank you very much.”

“What assessment did you do of that? Did you make an assessment of what impact that will have?”

“I have a quick question to Minister Pennycook about those people who invested expecting ground rent income that is not capped. Can you clarify what assessment you made of the impact of that? You recognise, and I think you said to me in the House, that you had to make a balanced decision. Could you just say a little bit…”

“I am not laughing.”

“Thank you very much for your answers.”

“But the self-employed will not be able to get auto-enrolment, will they? If they do not currently have a LISA, and your successor product stops the self-employed using it in that way, what will be the appropriate mechanism, without auto-enrolment, for them to gain that advantage of that aspect of the savings element?”

“But if people are not already invested in the existing LISA, they will not have the option to have that savings vehicle, will they?”

“Lastly, let me refer to the issue of the self-employed. The original design of the lifetime ISA was both as a product to save for a mortgage and then as something to be retained for supplementary savings. For the 4 million self-employed, who do not have auto-enrolment, the lifetime ISA provided a 25% bonus savings vehi…”

“Can I focus on the withdrawal penalties? I believe that last year the Treasury took £75 million in withdrawal charges, which effectively tax the primary capital of young people. I assume that a Government like this would want to do the progressive and fair thing, so can we expect perhaps a bonus-only penalty? Would the…”

“I recognise the withdrawal penalties issue, but you are not prepared to say anything this morning on the cap, despite the clear evidence of what the average house price is in key areas like London. Surely it is now irresistible. The FSCS deposit limit increased to £120,000 just before Christmas, I think. That reflected…”

“That would be an enhancement to the overall function of your unit within the FCA.”

“That is influencing by principles rather than fixed rules.”

“I have one further question, if I may. Given the organisational changes with the PSR moving into the FCA, how would you respond to the challenge that those supervisory approaches are different and that your coherence as a regulator in your own right will be compromised or there will be some dissonance that will be unhe…”

“Your candour is really appreciated. It is textbook for us on this Committee to have somebody before us who gives us such honest answers. Thank you for that.”

“Was the imperative for your fusion into the FCA, if we put it like that, the impression that somehow the PSR had become something that was not facilitating an economic good outcome? That was probably the motivation, from the way it was portrayed. How would you respond to that to the payment systems operators and the pe…”