It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, [K Sir Roger. I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and H [1D [K Harlington (John McDonnell) for securing this debate and for further airing [6D [K airing these issues. As he mentioned, there has been a long history of parl [4D [K parliamentary interest in these issues, over at least 14 years. That is for [3D [K for good reason, for not only are we deeply committed to justice and do we [K abhor injustice in this country, but SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy. [8D [K economy. The events of the IHRP scandal were completely wrong and abhorrent [9D [K abhorrent. From a personal point of view, I cannot deny how hard it is to [K hear and read about horrific personal circumstances, not least those of the [3D [K the Glanville family, referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (N [2D [K (Neil Duncan-Jordan); the Evans family, referred to by the Liberal Democrat [8D [K Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone); [K and the Lilley family, referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Middles [7D [K Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald). As my right hon. Friend th [2D [K the Member for Hayes and Harlington referred to, in some instances there ar [2D [K are hideous personal tragedies. To that end, I thank and acknowledge my ho [2D [K hon. Friends the Members for Poole, for Southgate and Wood Green (Bambos Ch [2D [K Charalambous), for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne), and for Middlesbrough [K and Thornaby East, and the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and fo [2D [K for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe (David Chadwick)—the latter knows I struggl [7D [K struggle sometimes to pronounce the name of his constituency; I hope he thi [3D [K thinks I had a decent go—and the spokespeople from other parties for their [K contributions to the debate. Not least because of the correspondence I hav [3D [K have had and what we have heard today, I recognise that some businesses rem [3D [K remain deeply dissatisfied with the operation of the original redress schem [5D [K scheme and that its conclusions continue to be strongly contested. Although [8D [K Although there have been a number of reviews and pieces of litigation, as I [1D [K I will come to later, the main redress scheme for IRHP resulted in over £2 [K billion paid in total to thousands of affected businesses. It was undeniab [8D [K undeniably unsatisfactory that the overall response to these issues has bee [3D [K been piecemeal and complex, and the process was very often slow and frustra [7D [K frustrating to deal with. However, I am told that the IRHP redress scheme w [1D [K was conceived as a means of providing redress within the legal and regulato [8D [K regulatory constraints of the time. Clearly, I was not part of the Treasur [7D [K Treasury in 2012, nor were Labour in government—the party of the shadow Eco [3D [K Economic Secretary to the Treasury, the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark G [1D [K Garnier), were in government for the last 14 years—so I want to set out the [3D [K the current Government's understanding of the framework within which decisi [6D [K decisions about the redress scheme were taken at the time. The constraints, [12D [K constraints, in so far as they concern regulatory oversight, reflect the co [2D [K constitutional settlement that underpins the UK's regulatory system. I ack [3D [K acknowledge the argument that the Government should act independently of th [2D [K the regulator and the regulatory system and look again at this issue with f [1D [K fresh eyes using their own statutory powers. Given the many reviews of thes [4D [K these issues, the independent and broad-based redress schemes over more tha [3D [K than a decade, the successful prosecutions, convictions, judicial reviews, [K and other investigations, the question that the current Government must ask [3D [K ask is whether steps to reopen these issues now will lead to better or diff [4D [K different outcomes, and, importantly, more redress for those affected. The [14D [K affected. There are questions as to whether this Government would have mad [3D [K made the same decisions if confronted with the same problems as the previou [7D [K previous one—and if our decisions would have been different or indeed more [K or less effective. Without prejudice to the gaze of the shadow Economic Sec [3D [K Secretary to the Treasury, I am sure that most of us would like to think no [2D [K not only that might we have dealt with the situation rather better, but tha [3D [K that in a best-case scenario regulation and supervision would have been des [3D [K designed such that none of these issues would have arisen in the first plac [4D [K place. That goes right to the root of why we are all here today, and indeed [6D [K indeed critical regulatory changes were made following this scandal. Sever [15D [K scandal. Several hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Strangford, a [1D [K a consistent champion of his constituents whose specific points I will come [4D [K come to shortly, and my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Joe Morris), who [3D [K who articulated Catherine and Nigel's heartbreaking story very well, have s [1D [K spoken about hidden credit lines or contingent obligations. Those are clear [5D [K clearly very serious allegations, and it is right that they are treated ser [3D [K seriously. I referred to a different regulatory environment from that exis [4D [K existing now. I will briefly explain why our regulatory landscape is now be [2D [K better. Since 2019, the vast majority of SMEs, around 99%, have been able t [1D [K to bring complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service. That was a direct r [1D [K response to the gaps exposed by earlier scandals, including those we have t [1D [K talked about today. I want to be clear that the Government are instead foc [3D [K focused on ensuring that the regulatory landscape is fit for purpose and on [2D [K on supporting SMEs to grow with confidence, improving their access to finan [5D [K finance and ensuring that the financial services sector operates to high st [2D [K standards that command trust. We are backing that commitment with real acti [4D [K action, with record support for the British Business Bank and reforms that [K strengthen accountability without undermining growth. We are committed to [K robust regulation to international high standards, so that we have a strong [6D [K strong financial services sector.