The Earl of Courtown (Con)

My Lords, I welcome these regulations and appreciate the very full description of them that the Minister gave. As she said, they enable the Financial Ombudsman Service to amend its rules to charge case fees to claims management companies and legal professionals on behalf of complainants when a customer launches a complaint against a financial services firm. On these Benches, we believe in the importance of fair and justified financial regulation and the ability for customers to issue a complaint against financial services firms when necessary. We recognise the benefit of this legislation, which seeks to address the economic benefit gained by intermediaries from bringing a case and the large volumes of poorly evidenced complaints submitted to the FOS. We welcome the Government’s continuation of our work in which we introduced the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, which enabled the Government to add to the list of persons to whom the FOS can charge fees. I would like answers to a couple of questions, but the Minister can write to me if need be. What measures are His Majesty’s Government taking to ensure that genuine and well-evidenced complaints continue to be submitted to, and heard by, the Financial Ombudsman Service? Can the Government confirm that this legislation will not result in increases in fees paid by consumers who have submitted a complaint? I was interested in the points raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie, and look forward to hearing the Minister’s responses to them. As I said, we support these regulations, and I look forward to the response from the Minister.