Select committee: Treasury Committee
Conclusion 6
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)
HM Treasury and the FCA should also develop proportionate firm-level financial inclusion metrics. These should focus on the largest providers and on markets where exclusion causes the greatest consumer harm, such as contents insurance, affordable credit and access to basic banking services. They should be designed to identify whether progress is being delivered consistently across firms and sectors. (Recommendation, Paragraph 27) Voluntary action, pilots and the route to scale
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.