Overview

• MPs branded Baroness Zahida Manzoor’s refusal to answer questions as strictly true but “unnecessary and disrespectful” under Lords immunity.
• The committee ordered the Financial Ombudsman Service to submit severance and non-disclosure agreements with former chief executive Abby Thomas, though it has not published the documents.
• The report confirms Thomas’s departure in February resulted from a broad “mutual collapse in confidence” over strategy, management and operations.
• Treasury Committee chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier warned that attempts to frustrate Commons scrutiny undermine public accountability at arm’s-length bodies.
• The Financial Ombudsman Service remains under interim leadership while a permanent chief executive is appointed amid renewed calls for stronger governance.