Great to see the All Party Insurance & Financial Services Group flourishing

I am delighted to see that the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services is going from strength-to-strength in its new partnership with the Chartered Insurance Institute and with former insurance broker, now Tory MP, Craig Tracey at the helm.

It is nearly 30 years since I helped launch the group as part of an initiative by Post Magazine. The mission was simple: to improve communications between the insurance industry and Parliament which were then at a low ebb. A series of major pieces of legislation had gone through over the previous three or four years that had adversely impacted on the insurance industry and it was frequently the target of unjustified criticism by MPs and ministers. Those were the days of huge Tory majorities (nothing changes) and recruiting Labour MPs to get the group established was a real struggle but we got there with the help of Muriel Turner, a Labour peer and former trade union official in the insurance industry. She persuaded Labour MPs it was worth supporting and it has never looked back.

The group has tackled a wide range of issues over the years and played a significant part in the formation of Pool Re, the introduction of equalisation reserves, securing compensation for people miss-sold home reversion plans and getting tougher action on uninsured driving. It also played a major role in finding a solution to the challenge of providing insurance for flood-prone properties, which led to the creation of Flood Re.

Craig Tracey is only the fourth chair of the group in those thirty years, the others being Sir Robert McCrindle, John Greenway and Jonathan Evans, all Conservatives. He was recently re-elected and has a strong panel of fellow officers to support him, including some new faces.

Lord (David) Hunt (Con), Co-Chair
Barry Gardiner MP (Lab), Officer
Sir Peter Bottomley (Con), Officer
Rob Roberts MP (Con), Officer
Christian Wakeford MP (Con), Officer

Access to insurance has been a key theme for the group recently and it will be returning to that with its first public session of the year:

• Monday 30 March – Access to Insurance: Improving consumer access to protection for people with disabilities and long-term health conditions – 5pm to 7pm, Committee Room 5, Palace of Westminster

It has also booked two further public sessions before the summer recess:

• Monday 4 May – Topic tbc – 4.30pm to 6.30pm Committee Room 5, Palace of Westminster

• Monday 1 June – Future Skills across Financial Services – 4.30pm to 6.30pm Committee Room 5, Palace of Westminster

Tracey is also keen on reaching out to members across the UK to set up surgeries, as part of improving the engagement between Parliament and the profession. It will be interesting to see what comes of this bold initiative.

The group is now on Twitter – @IFSAPPG – and says it will be using it to share relevant news items and for live tweets about events and meetings it holds.

Anyone wanting further information about the group and its activities should contact:

Shayne Halfpenny-Ray
Secretariat, IFSAPPG
Chartered Insurance Institute
T:  +44(0)20 7417 4417
M: +44(0)79 2041 0368
shayne.halfpenny-ray@cii.co.uk