Speeches by Blake.

“Have you had any pushback from fintech and the sector about those?”

“We talked a bit about engagement with industry in terms of any meetings with the Treasury about the amount. I think that the Minister at the time expressed that he was not that keen on the £415,000.”

“Staying on the theme of the APP fraud, I wanted to get into the detail of the decision to move from the £415,000 to £85,000. Why was that decision made?”

“Can you describe the nature of the pushback to the £415,000 limit?”

“Then the formal review of the limit is October 2025?”

“So this less than 1% figure is above the £85,000 threshold?”

“You talked about how changes in remuneration and the removal of the cap were measurable in terms of behaviour. Can you elaborate on how you can measure those and what you are seeing in terms of those behaviour changes?”

“In your questionnaire you wrote, “If we look back to the major episodes of failures at financial firms, we can always identify a root cause in poor culture—especially risk culture—and ineffective governance”. At the same time, you said that culture is a difficult area for supervisors to intervene in: “It is not easy to…”

“Given the significance that you have apportioned this within your questionnaire, are you concerned about a slow rate of progress to use these tools and the level of visibility of this type of risk?”

“Can you measure improvements in the culture of firms?”

“Are you surprised at the slow progress with this, given the significance of the risk?”

“You said it will be measurable. Can you give us any figures that you are observing?”

“In terms of the political environment in the United States, how worried are you about a change in risk culture within US firms and the impact that this could have on UK firms?”

“Last week gave me two really clear reminders about why this issue matters. First, I spoke with my hon. Friend the Member for Kensington and Bayswater (Joe Powell) at a rally to mark the illegal invasion of Ukraine. We saw a frank reminder of authoritarianism right on our doorstep. Then, on Thursday, the Labour party lo…”

“So it is still too unknown for you. You are not the experts and you are not engineers, but you are looking at prices a lot. What I am hearing you say is that at this point, the stated desire for investment is not flowing through into any stabilisation. That is what I am hearing.”

“I am really pleased to hear you say that, because that leads on to my next question, which is about the point at which government investment in renewable energy might start flowing into energy prices. Clearly, the Government’s intention is to invest in renewables in order to stabilise our energy costs and to secure us …”

“Yes.”

“That is what I thought you were going to say, so we are all on the same page. What are the drivers that you see?”

“Just to follow up on health sector productivity, you talked about whether it is real or a measurement challenge. Let us say that it is real. Is there any analysis around this being connected to the complexity of health challenges that this country faces?”

“We have had a bit of a discussion about energy prices and their role in inflation. It has been established today that volatility in energy prices is now certain, and it seems to me that it is, essentially, baked in. What, if anything, can MPC decisions do to tackle energy prices?”