Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

I beg to move, That this House agrees with Lords amendment 7. At various stages during the passage of the Bill, hon. Members and noble Lords made a case for a review of the saving gateway to be carried out in due course after the launch of the accounts. I know that the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) and the hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. Browne) spoke on this matter on Report. In response, Ministers in both Houses made clear the importance that they attach to a future review as a way of assessing the success of the saving gateway against the objectives that we have set for it. This amendment would impose a statutory requirement on Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to commission an independent review of the effect of the saving gateway. It would also set the time scale for the review and its publication, and specify that certain matters will be considered within it. The results and conclusions of the review would be set out in a report that to be laid before Parliament. As hon. Members may be aware, independent evaluations of two saving gateway pilots were carried out by the Personal Finance Research Centre at Bristol university, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Ipsos MORI, and we envisage following a similar model for this review. It will consider the effect of the scheme against the objectives that we have set for it: to kick-start a saving habit among working age people on lower incomes; and to promote engagement with mainstream financial services. Therefore, the matters addressed in subsections 1(a) to (d) of the proposed new clause directly relate to the development of a saving habit among account holders, account holders' engagement with mainstream financial services and barriers to the opening of saving gateway accounts. In addition, subsection 1(e) would allow for other relevant matters to be considered as part of the review. I commend this amendment to the House.