Jim Dickson

I welcome the Bill, and the opportunity to follow so many excellent contributions this evening, particularly those of the Chair of the Treasury Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier), and other colleagues from the Treasury Committee. One of the key items on our agenda in the Treasury Committee over the past year or so has been the Government’s financial inclusion strategy. We made an important recommendation for Ministers to consider whether the Bill should include further targeted powers to intervene if voluntary action fails to secure reasonable access to essential financial services. I am glad that the Government is doing that; the measures in the Bill will give them more powers to protect access to banking services. So many Members have said this tonight, but I suspect we all have constituents who have seen their access to banking services dramatically reduce in recent years. It is right that the Government are giving themselves powers to address that. We want our financial services industry to contribute as much as it can to economic growth, and I endorse the changes to the operation of the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority, both of which are regular attenders at our Select Committee and play important roles in our economy. It seems eminently sensible that both should produce long-term strategies that balance their responsibilities as regulators with the Government’s growth objectives, and I know that many across the sector will welcome efforts to streamline their reporting requirements. My children were of the generation who received child trust fund contributions under the last Labour Government. We promised to create that programme in our 2001 manifesto, and we set it up in 2002. It has assisted many young people with getting started in life. Many invested in ISAs to build up a fund to bring home ownership closer, or funded driving lessons or a first vehicle. It was a tremendous shame that the Government post 2010 scrapped that programme. Inclusion regarding how those child trust funds are managed is critical, and the Bill takes steps to facilitate access to those funds for parents and carers who manage them in situations where the young people concerned are unable to do so themselves. That is long overdue and I, like many others present, have received correspondence from constituents about the issue. I welcome the change.