Written questions by Edwards.

What plans her Department has to establish service standards to improve the effectiveness of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS); and pursuant to the Answer of 16 October 2025 to Question 77954 on Financial Ombudsman Service, when she expects to publish a response to the consultation on improving the regulatory coherence between the FOS and the Financial Conduct Authority.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) sets itself performance targets in its annual Plans and Budgets publication. Ensuring timely outcomes is one of the FOS’s main priorities for 2025-26, as outlined in its annual Plans and Budget publication on 1 April 2025. In 2023-24, the FOS resolved over half of its cases within three months. The FOS regularly publishes data on its casework, including progress against its annual performance targets. The latest complaints data is available at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/data-insight/our-insight and its Annual Reports and Accounts can be found at https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/governance-funding/annual-reports-accounts The government is considering the feedback received to its recent consultation on the FOS, and will publish a response soon.

Pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2024 to Question 13971 on Financial Services: Euro, what steps her Department is taking to mitigate against the risk of the EU not extending its equivalence decision for UK central counterparties after June 2025.

As set out in my previous response, it is a decision for EU authorities whether to extend further the Article 25 EMIR decision for UK CCPs. As the Bank of England has noted previously, there are financial stability risks which might arise from EU firms having to exit from UK CCPs at pace. HM Treasury, alongside the financial services regulators, will therefore continue to monitor the situation.

What discussions she has had with her European Union counterparts on the future of EU denominated clearing in the UK beyond June 2025.

The EU took the decision in early 2022 to extend its equivalence decision for UK central counterparties, made under Article 25 of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, until June 2025. Equivalence decisions are made on a unilateral basis by EU authorities and it is therefore a decision for EU authorities on whether this is extended. The UK Government is committed to maintain and strengthen our high standards for CCP regulation.