Cross-party amendment on personalised financial guidance tabled at Report Stage of the Financial Services and Markets Bill

Harriett Baldwin MP, chair of the Treasury Select Committee, tabled an amendment at Report Stage of the Financial Services and Markets Bill on 7 December 2022, according to TISA, an independent body that worked with her on the drafting¹. The amendment was signed by 15 co-signatories across political parties¹.

TISA says the amendment "would enable HMT to introduce the necessary legislation for the set-up of a personalised guidance regime to assist UK households, particularly those who cannot afford or cannot access financial advice"¹. It adds that personalised guidance needs only secondary legislation, not primary, so the amendment was not technically required for the regime to be created¹.

In response, the minister Andrew Griffith MP said he supported the essence of what the amendment sought to solve and that the government would look at it as a potential way of moving forward¹. TISA reports that he said that while the government would not adopt the amendment, there was nothing in the Bill preventing the required legislation being introduced at a later stage, and that he assured the House of Commons the work would be taken forward with urgency, together with the Financial Conduct Authority and industry¹.

TISA also reports support from Sir Stephen Timms MP, chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, for personalised guidance to extend to helping people with their pensions¹. It notes that Baldwin was the City Minister who oversaw the Financial Advice Market Review and its recommendations¹.

The Bill's passage and any subsequent secondary legislation are not dated in the source. TISA's account was published on 26 January 2023, after the 7 December 2022 Report Stage¹. No further parliamentary timetable for a personalised guidance regime has been reported.

Why it matters for households

The proposal concerns people who cannot afford or cannot access regulated financial advice, which TISA describes as the group the regime is intended to assist¹. Personalised guidance would sit alongside existing advice rules, but the source does not set out what it would cover, what it would cost, or who would provide it. Because the change would be made through secondary legislation rather than the Bill itself, no date is attached to when, or whether, it would take effect. The government's stated position is that it will not adopt the amendment but will examine the idea, with work to be taken forward with the FCA and industry¹. Until legislation is laid, nothing changes for consumers. The rules governing who may give financial advice, and how, are set out in the UK's financial regulation framework, with HM Treasury responsible for the underlying legislation and the post-Brexit settlement shaping how new rules are introduced.

What happens next

TISA says Baldwin was due to speak at its Financial Advice and Guidance Conference on 21 March 2023, where legislative and regulatory developments in the advice and guidance sector were to be discussed¹. The source gives no date for any government decision on introducing secondary legislation for a personalised guidance regime.