Select committee: Treasury Committee
Recommendation 9
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Where delivery depends on voluntary industry action, HM Treasury should set out clear triggers for further intervention. It should also explain what evidence or level of consumer harm would be needed before existing reserve powers, including those on access to banking services, would be used. Given 17 that the Financial Services and Markets Bill is currently before Parliament, and the length of time it could take to pass any future legislation, HM Treasury should consider now whether the Bill should include further targeted powers to intervene if voluntary action fails to secure reasonable access to essential financial services. (Recommendation, Paragraph 36)
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.