UK Parliament / Open data

Financial Services Bill

Debate on bills on Monday, 6 February 2012, in the House of Commons, led by George Osborne. The answering member was Ed Balls.
Financial Services Bill. Second reading debate. Agreed to on question. Programme motion on proceedings in Public Bill Committee, Third Reading and any other proceedings agreed to on question. Money resolution and carry-over motion agreed to on question.
Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
540 c43-131 
Session
2010-12
Department
Treasury
Legislative stage
Second reading
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Mark Field | 540 c106-7 (Link to this contribution) I am afraid that I will not. Product regulation and financial promotion powers are another issue. T...
Mark Garnier | 540 c106 (Link to this contribution) Will my hon. Friend give way?

Show all contributions (187)
Steve Barclay | 540 c109-11 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Glasgow North East (Mr Bain). I pay tribute to my hon...
William Bain | 540 c107-9 (Link to this contribution) This Bill makes certain changes to the supervision of the banking and wider financial services secto...
David Mowat | 540 c112 (Link to this contribution) I agree with the hon. Gentleman's point about the market failure that we have seen in the pension an...
Mark Durkan | 540 c111-2 (Link to this contribution) Like the hon. Member for North East Cambridgeshire (Stephen Barclay), I shall address areas in which...
Speaker | 540 c113 (Link to this contribution) There are still seven people who wish to catch my eye, and we are struggling with interventions. Tim...
Mark Durkan | 540 c112-3 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has more confidence in the extensive effect that he expects from the competition ...
Sheila Gilmore | 540 c115-7 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Member for Vale of Glamorgan (Alun Cairns) referred to what he thought was the regrettable ...
Alun Cairns | 540 c113-5 (Link to this contribution) I will endeavour to say as much of what I planned to say as I can in the existing time frame. There...
Steve Baker | 540 c122-4 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mr Speaker. I refer the House to my interest in Cobden Partners, which has been establish...
Speaker | 540 c122 (Link to this contribution) Order. The wind-ups from the Front Benchers begin at 9.40 pm, but before then two remaining Members ...
Jackie Doyle-Price | 540 c121-2 (Link to this contribution) It is a great pleasure to have an opportunity to speak in what, in the main, has been a well-informe...
David Rutley | 540 c119-21 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak in this important debate. Finan...
David Mowat | 540 c117-9 (Link to this contribution) I agree with those who have said that we are here to make a good Bill better. The financial services...
Sheila Gilmore | 540 c117 (Link to this contribution) Although it is widely believed that regulation for the poorest is particularly important, those of u...
Nicholas Dakin | 540 c117 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is making a clear and powerful case for regulation in appropriate places, and I would...
Mark Field | 540 c127 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Chris Leslie | 540 c125-7 (Link to this contribution) First, I congratulate hon. Members who have taken part in the debate this evening, particularly thos...
Jacob Rees-Mogg | 540 c124-5 (Link to this contribution) I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Steve Baker) for being so brief. I refer Members to m...
Mark Hoban | 540 c128-30 (Link to this contribution) This has been a thoughtful debate. We have had 21 speeches, led by the Chairman of the Joint Committ...
Chris Evans | 540 c102-5 (Link to this contribution) This Bill will amend a series of pieces of legislation. When we talk about reforming financial servi...
Mark Field | 540 c105-6 (Link to this contribution) To be frank, I still regard too much of this legislation as deficient, and I shall touch on some spe...
Baroness Burt of Solihull | 540 c87 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that short-term consumer credit, payday lenders and the managing of consum...
Stephen Gilbert | 540 c86-7 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the eloquent contribution of the hon. Member for Leeds East (Mr Mudie). H...
George Mudie | 540 c85-6 (Link to this contribution) The second issue that I want to raise is that of accountability. I want to draw the Chancellor's att...
Nicholas Brown | 540 c85 (Link to this contribution) Best thing to do with it. [Laughter.]
George Mudie | 540 c85 (Link to this contribution) I think that it is more an indication of the way in which the banks have moved away from the real wo...
John Hemming | 540 c91 (Link to this contribution) I share the hon. Lady's concern about the very high levels of interest rates charged on certain debt...
Stella Creasy | 540 c91 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I agree, and I hope that Government Members will join me in condemning those banks and credit c...
Stephen Gilbert | 540 c88-9 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. I believe that all financial services should ...
Stella Creasy | 540 c89-91 (Link to this contribution) This is the third time that we on this side of the House have proposed legislative action on the hig...
Stephen Gilbert | 540 c87-8 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is quite right; that is a welcome step forward, although there are some bits that sti...
Stephen Lloyd | 540 c88 (Link to this contribution) I strongly agree with the direction of travel that my hon. Friend is taking, but does he acknowledge...
Speaker | 540 c81 (Link to this contribution) Order. The right hon. Member is not supposed to take up other people's time.
Nicholas Brown | 540 c81 (Link to this contribution) I say: ““Every man a king, but no man wears a crown.””
Kelvin Hopkins | 540 c80 (Link to this contribution) Everything that my right hon. Friend is saying suggests that we are re-empowering Parliament when it...
Nicholas Brown | 540 c78-9 (Link to this contribution) Along with my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds East (Mr Mudie), I represented the parliamentary Labo...
Nicholas Brown | 540 c80-1 (Link to this contribution) We need to go further. How Parliament interacts with the Governor in his new role as regulator has n...
George Mudie | 540 c83-4 (Link to this contribution) May I first align myself with the remarks that my right hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Ty...
David Ruffley | 540 c84 (Link to this contribution) I am following the hon. Gentleman's argument closely. Does he agree that it is imperative for the Go...
George Mudie | 540 c84 (Link to this contribution) That is an important point. I think that it was Charles Goodhart who raised the question of indicato...
Steve Baker | 540 c84 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman's speech seems to allude to a search for an equilibrium that never exists in the ...
David Ruffley | 540 c81-3 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown), most of wh...
Steve Baker | 540 c95 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an interesting point in comparing the approach under discussion to the common l...
Matt Hancock | 540 c95 (Link to this contribution) That is absolutely right, and I should also pay tribute to my hon. and learned Friend's profession o...
Stephen Phillips | 540 c95 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is making a powerful case. Does he agree that a key point is that flexibility is requ...
Matt Hancock | 540 c95-6 (Link to this contribution) As I said, this pendulum swung too far, but why do we need to allow the authorities to exercise this...
Tom Greatrex | 540 c96-8 (Link to this contribution) I wish to make a relatively brief contribution. I do so without the degree of expertise that has bee...
Matt Hancock | 540 c95 (Link to this contribution) It would be better if we had an embedded and long-standing system in which there were those preceden...
Steve Baker | 540 c95 (Link to this contribution) I hope that my hon. Friend will stay for my speech.
Mark Garnier | 540 c99-102 (Link to this contribution) It is a great pleasure to speak in this debate, partly because in a previous existence I spent a num...
Speaker | 540 c102 (Link to this contribution) Order. Twelve Members seek to catch my eye so I am going to drop the speech limit to eight minutes t...
Alun Cairns | 540 c98 (Link to this contribution) I pay tribute to the work that the hon. Gentleman has done on Arch Cru. Does he share my concern tha...
Tom Greatrex | 540 c98-9 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I do not wish it to appear as if we are just congra...
Stella Creasy | 540 c91 (Link to this contribution) I hope the hon. Gentleman is on his feet to agree with me that this must be stopped.
Stella Creasy | 540 c91-2 (Link to this contribution) I hope that the hon. Gentleman will use the fact that he has shares to make representations to his b...
John Hemming | 540 c91 (Link to this contribution) I wanted to make reference to my entry in the register, as I have certain banking shares.
David Mowat | 540 c92 (Link to this contribution) I am following the hon. Lady's argument closely, and many Government Members are equally concerned a...
Stella Creasy | 540 c92 (Link to this contribution) I have answered this question in previous debates. I do not think that we should set a single rate o...
Speaker | 540 c93 (Link to this contribution) Order. Before I call the next speaker, we moved rather swiftly on from a recent intervention and I w...
John Hemming | 540 c93 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I wanted to refer the House to my declaration of interests and the fact that I hold certain ban...
Matt Hancock | 540 c93-5 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Walthamstow (Stella Creasy). She speaks with passion ...
Ed Balls | 540 c68-9 (Link to this contribution) I will give way in a minute. Let me just make the argument, and then the hon. Gentleman, with all hi...
Ed Balls | 540 c68 (Link to this contribution) In a second. I will make the argument and the hon. Gentleman can then ask a question. Senior and re...
Ed Balls | 540 c66-8 (Link to this contribution) Yes. I will set out what needs to be done to turn this bad Bill into a good Bill and to put the pub...
Ed Balls | 540 c66 (Link to this contribution) I have apologised to the country and have asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to do the same. Did ...
Ed Balls | 540 c65 (Link to this contribution) Those were decisions for the Chancellor and the Prime Minister of the day. I cannot give the hon. Ge...
Alun Cairns | 540 c66 (Link to this contribution) Is the shadow Chancellor telling us that he accepts absolutely no part, bearing in mind his key role...
Ed Balls | 540 c69 (Link to this contribution) Is that the best you've got?
Matt Hancock | 540 c69 (Link to this contribution) I know that the right hon. Gentleman is desperate to defend the tripartite structure that he designe...
Charlie Elphicke | 540 c65 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Ed Balls | 540 c65 (Link to this contribution) In a second. And yes, it was a failure shared here in the UK, across the Treasury, the FSA, the Ban...
Ed Balls | 540 c64 (Link to this contribution) I will make some progress and take both interventions in a minute. I understand why politically the...
Harriett Baldwin | 540 c64-5 (Link to this contribution) On that very point, I should like to understand where the right hon. Gentleman is coming from in his...
Ed Balls | 540 c65 (Link to this contribution) I am going to come on to explain my analysis. I am not sure I fully understood the question, but I m...
Ed Balls | 540 c64 (Link to this contribution) But I will take another intervention. Let us hope that this one is better.
Charlie Elphicke | 540 c64 (Link to this contribution) Does the shadow Chancellor accept that it was a failure of regulation when, to buy a home, people we...
Ed Balls | 540 c64 (Link to this contribution) The problem was the US sub-prime mortgage market, and that the failure of regulation there rippled a...
Gordon Birtwistle | 540 c65 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman explain the regulatory things that went on when the previous Prime Min...
Ed Balls | 540 c72 (Link to this contribution) Go on then. I will give way to the hon. Gentleman.
Charlie Elphicke | 540 c72 (Link to this contribution) I thank the shadow Chancellor for giving way once more. The Chancellor's plan is for the financial a...
Matt Hancock | 540 c72 (Link to this contribution) I am very grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way again. Does not his argument—that we c...
Ed Balls | 540 c72 (Link to this contribution) The Chancellor referred to his years of thinking about this legislation. I am afraid that his former...
Lord Lilley | 540 c77-8 (Link to this contribution) That is probably a good point, and I hope that the relevant powers will listen to it. When Monsieur...
Kelvin Hopkins | 540 c77 (Link to this contribution) As a member of the European Scrutiny Committee, I appreciate what the right hon. Gentleman is saying...
Lord Lilley | 540 c75-7 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the shadow Chancellor, who began by promising us—somewhat uncharacteristi...
Ed Balls | 540 c73-5 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman does not understand that the buck does not stop with the Governor of the Bank of ...
Matt Hancock | 540 c69 (Link to this contribution) It is not, by far. The accusation that the right hon. Gentleman makes undermines his point that the...
Ed Balls | 540 c69-70 (Link to this contribution) I made it very clear that I was not defending any particular regulatory structure. I do not think th...
George Osborne | 540 c70 (Link to this contribution) I hear the right hon. Gentleman's criticism of our proposals, but what is his response to what my pr...
Ed Balls | 540 c70 (Link to this contribution) My response to the current Chancellor, who has not yet dealt with such a crisis, is ““Welcome to the...
Ed Balls | 540 c70-1 (Link to this contribution) The Chancellor does not listen. He wants to play this game so much that he does not hear. I agree wi...
Brian Binley | 540 c71 (Link to this contribution) The shadow Chancellor is telling us something illuminating—that if a Chancellor does not want to lis...
Ed Balls | 540 c71 (Link to this contribution) My very clear advice to the Chancellor is that when he gives people a clear statutory responsibility...
Geoffrey Robinson | 540 c71 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend agree that the further decision to install the Governor for eight years wi...
Ed Balls | 540 c71 (Link to this contribution) I understand my hon. Friend's point, but to be honest I do not have strong views on that. The realit...
Ed Balls | 540 c64 (Link to this contribution) In Government regulation, in credit rating agencies and in Governments throughout the world. I shall...
Speaker | 540 c62 (Link to this contribution) Order. Before calling the shadow Chancellor, I indicate to hon. Members who wish to take part in the...
Ed Balls | 540 c62-3 (Link to this contribution) Let me start by striking a rather different tone from that of the Chancellor's performance in the Ho...
Kelvin Hopkins | 540 c63 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. Friend accept that the crisis was caused in very large part by a complete failure...
Ed Balls | 540 c64 (Link to this contribution) There were failures in auditing, in corporate governance, in regulation—
George Osborne | 540 c61 (Link to this contribution) As I have said, when the legislation is passed, the statutory responsibility will be on the Bank of ...
Stella Creasy | 540 c61 (Link to this contribution) The banks that have gone from my high street have been replaced by high-cost credit companies that o...
George Osborne | 540 c61-2 (Link to this contribution) The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has commissioned a review of the cost of credit, ...
George Osborne | 540 c44-5 (Link to this contribution) It sounds like the right hon. Gentleman cannot remember it himself. No doubt he will use the time al...
Ed Balls | 540 c45 (Link to this contribution) When I asked the chair of FSA, he said he could have inserted into the footnotes of that 400-page re...
Ed Balls | 540 c44 (Link to this contribution) I shall repeat. Does the Chancellor recall the conversation we had in Downing street following my co...
Claire O'Neill | 540 c44 (Link to this contribution) As my right hon. Friend is setting out what is essentially a political failure, will he enlighten th...
Ed Balls | 540 c44 (Link to this contribution) Will the Chancellor share with the House the contents of the conversation I had with him in Downing ...
George Osborne | 540 c44 (Link to this contribution) Well, the report names Tony Blair, the right hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown) an...
Jonathan Evans | 540 c50 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend will be aware that the risks in the banking sector have been shown by the recen...
Charlie Elphicke | 540 c50 (Link to this contribution) With the tripartite system, of which I believe the shadow Chancellor was the architect, a tick-box c...
George Osborne | 540 c50 (Link to this contribution) We do not want to prescribe in the Bill the qualifications of the external members of the Financial ...
George Osborne | 540 c50-1 (Link to this contribution) The key thing is to empower the regulators both to exercise judgment and then to be able to do somet...
George Osborne | 540 c49 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman calls it rubbish, but let me say this: he was instrumental in a way that no...
George Osborne | 540 c49 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman is perfectly entitled to that view, but it is not shared by the Select Comm...
Claire O'Neill | 540 c49 (Link to this contribution) Nor was the view of the right hon. Member for Morley and Outwood (Ed Balls) that of the Governor of ...
Stephen Gilbert | 540 c53 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend has talked about the macro-prudential powers that the Bank of England will have...
George Osborne | 540 c52-3 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend makes a very good point about the international nature of this business. We mus...
Peter Tapsell | 540 c52 (Link to this contribution) The shadow Chancellor raised the question of both Barings and BCCI, and it underlines the nature of ...
Ed Balls | 540 c56 (Link to this contribution) Can the Chancellor envisage a situation in which the Governor of the Bank of England may judge not t...
George Osborne | 540 c54-6 (Link to this contribution) I would certainly be happy to have a debate about that on the Floor of the House. It is a decision f...
George Mudie | 540 c53-4 (Link to this contribution) One suggestion from the Treasury Select Committee was that the Chancellor should not send the propos...
George Osborne | 540 c53 (Link to this contribution) Yes, I can give that assurance. This is an important point that I want to flag up so that the House ...
Ed Balls | 540 c51 (Link to this contribution) Will the Chancellor explain why, if the key is locating regulation in the central bank, those pressu...
George Osborne | 540 c51-2 (Link to this contribution) There are examples of central banks, such as the Canadian and Spanish central banks, which were much...
Kerry McCarthy | 540 c51 (Link to this contribution) At the time of the collapse of Barings, I was working at Abbey National Treasury, which was involved...
George Osborne | 540 c46 (Link to this contribution) Well, that is a bit like the John Cleese sketch—the right hon. Gentleman started it by creating the ...
Peter Tapsell | 540 c46 (Link to this contribution) As we are in the mood for recollection, and I am one of those who strongly opposed the tripartite sy...
George Osborne | 540 c46 (Link to this contribution) The key issue in our regulatory system that we are seeking to restore is judgment by the regulator, ...
George Osborne | 540 c46 (Link to this contribution) This series of interventions is a little bit self-obsessed, and it reminds everyone of the right hon...
George Osborne | 540 c45 (Link to this contribution) First, the FSA report on RBS is worth reading and stands by itself. The chairman of the FSA chose to...
Ed Balls | 540 c45 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps the Chancellor should remind the House that the shadow Chancellor at the time also voted aga...
George Osborne | 540 c45 (Link to this contribution) I think the key word is ““effective””, which is clearly what was lacking. If the right hon. Gentlema...
Ed Balls | 540 c45 (Link to this contribution) The Chancellor also said in June 2006 that this"““regulation has been burdensome, complex and makes ...
George Osborne | 540 c48 (Link to this contribution) I would make this important point to the right hon. Gentleman: of course those were failures of regu...
Ed Balls | 540 c48 (Link to this contribution) Without wanting to disrupt too much the Chancellor's political narrative, I ask him to remind the Ho...
George Osborne | 540 c47-8 (Link to this contribution) For a while, they did make an awful lot of money. Unfortunately, they then lost an awful lot of mone...
Andrew Bridgen | 540 c47 (Link to this contribution) To take the Chancellor back to my experiences in 1997, I was in business, and my bankers at the time...
George Osborne | 540 c47 (Link to this contribution) Maybe we should just exchange our notes; then we could spare the House.
George Osborne | 540 c47 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is tempting me back into the fertile territory of the shadow Chancellor's role in the...
Ed Balls | 540 c47 (Link to this contribution) Will the Chancellor give way?
George Osborne | 540 c47 (Link to this contribution) Yes, but then I should make some progress.
Charlie Elphicke | 540 c47 (Link to this contribution) I hesitate to take the Chancellor back to the FSA report on the failure of RBS, which says that poli...
George Osborne | 540 c46-7 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend has been entirely consistent in the views he has expressed, and he was right al...
Mark Durkan | 540 c60-1 (Link to this contribution) Is the power to direct, to which the Chancellor has referred, contingent on the Governor of the Bank...
George Osborne | 540 c56 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps I have misunderstood the question.
George Osborne | 540 c56 (Link to this contribution) First, the Bank Governor will have a statutory obligation to inform the Chancellor, so they would be...
George Osborne | 540 c58 (Link to this contribution) I will give way one final time, but then I will conclude.
Ed Balls | 540 c57 (Link to this contribution) This goes absolutely to the heart of the issue. The reality is that if we have a tripartite or quart...
George Osborne | 540 c57-8 (Link to this contribution) The first point I make to the right hon. Gentleman is that the Bank Governor does not come to the Go...
Ed Balls | 540 c57 (Link to this contribution) The problem is that in the legislation, in the memorandum of understanding and in the Chancellor's o...
George Osborne | 540 c57 (Link to this contribution) As I say, it is the responsibility of the Bank to inform the Government: that is what the legislatio...
Ed Balls | 540 c56 (Link to this contribution) This is important, so I will ask the question again. Can the Chancellor envisage a situation in whic...
George Osborne | 540 c56-7 (Link to this contribution) The legislation makes it clear that that is the Bank's responsibility. Of course, the Governor is ch...
George Osborne | 540 c58-9 (Link to this contribution) We can explore this at greater length in Committee, but I say to the right hon. Gentleman now that w...
Ed Balls | 540 c58 (Link to this contribution) The whole point—this is so important, and goes to the heart of one of the debates in the committee—i...
Geoffrey Robinson | 540 c59 (Link to this contribution) I hate to intrude on this Socratic dialogue between the Chancellor and my right hon. Friend the Memb...
George Osborne | 540 c60 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. This is all about the Governor's responsibility to do ...
Ed Balls | 540 c60 (Link to this contribution) The tripartite standing committee met every month at the deputy level, from its inception until the ...
George Osborne | 540 c60 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman keeps saying there were two people, but there were three principals in the ...
George Osborne | 540 c59 (Link to this contribution) The other point that I would make—the Financial Secretary to the Treasury is reminding me of it—is t...
George Osborne | 540 c59 (Link to this contribution) I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matthew Hancock), who has worked in the Ba...
Matt Hancock | 540 c59 (Link to this contribution) Does the Opposition's proposal not seem to be an attempt to re-create a tripartite structure in whic...
George Osborne | 540 c59 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There was a failure of regulation with Barings, but the collapse...
Chris Leslie | 540 c128 (Link to this contribution) I am afraid that I have only one minute before the Minister has to speak, in which time I shall also...
George Osborne | 540 c49-50 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend reminds me that in the Mansion House speech in 2009, I think, the Governor, appointed...
George Osborne | 540 c51 (Link to this contribution) That is the task that we are giving them. They must ensure that they have the necessary expertise an...
Edward Leigh | 540 c46 (Link to this contribution) Does not the ding-dong of the last four or five minutes illustrate the dangers of political interfer...
Stella Creasy | 540 c92-3 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry, but I will not, as I do not have much time left and I have already taken some interventi...
Matt Hancock | 540 c68 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Charlie Elphicke | 540 c66 (Link to this contribution) A few moments ago, the shadow Chancellor told the House that he had no involvement in the merger of ...
Ed Balls | 540 c71 (Link to this contribution) Oh God! It is a choice of two evils. Whom do I choose?
George Osborne | 540 c43-4 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. It is a pleasure to move Second Reading of ...
George Osborne | 540 c44 (Link to this contribution) Why does the shadow Chancellor remind us of that?
Ed Balls | 540 c49 (Link to this contribution) I will set out our position in my speech, but the idea that by making the Bank of England independen...
Mark Field | 540 c60 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend is absolutely right about this. Surely the issue is the clarity of the relation...
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