Select committee: Treasury Committee
Conclusion 3
2nd Report – Financial Inclusion Strategy
Published 14 Jul 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Treasury Committee Financial Inclusion Strategy All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We welcome the government’s commitment to review progress against the Strategy at the two-year mark. However, a two-year review without published baselines and milestones will not inform Parliament to judge whether the Strategy is on track. Reporting that working groups have met, pilots have started and stakeholders have been consulted does not show whether financial exclusion has reduced. Without baselines, targets, named owners, firm-level data and regular reporting, the two-year review risks describing activity rather than showing whether the Strategy is working. (Conclusion, Paragraph 24) 16
From: Treasury Committee, 2nd Report – Financial Inclusion Strategy (HC 13), 14 July 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 18 September 2026 (deadline 14 September 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government shares the Committee's aims on evidence, accountability and delivery, but does not take forward several specific recommendations, relying instead on the planned two-year review of the Strategy.
- On the proposed fuller quantitative analysis of financial exclusion, the Government considers it "would duplicate work already undertaken in developing the Strategy".
- On firm-level metrics, the Government will "continue to use and invest in established population-level data sources". It is mindful that a broad set of new reporting requirements "could risk diverting resources" from effective action.
- On pilots, the two-year review will include "a forward-looking assessment of the next steps for each pilot, working group and exploratory programme", rather than a separate pilot-to-scale plan within six months.
- On governance, the Government considers that formally recording disagreements between consumer and industry representatives "could discourage candid discussion". It commits to the Financial Inclusion Committee continuing to publish summaries of its meetings on GOV.UK.