The Treasury Select Committee is concerned about the accountability of the Financial Conduct Authority.

The accountability of the new regulator was a big issue, with the Committee believing the board of the FCA should publish full board minutes of each meeting. It also wants the FCA board to be responsible for responding to requests for factual information from Parliament.

The chief executive of the FCA should be subject to scrutiny by the Committee and Parliament should be able to request retrospective reviews of the FCA’s work.

Chairman of the Committee Andrew Tyrie MP said: “The FCA has been given huge powers. It is not enough, as the Government has proposed, merely to match the weak pre-existing accountability arrangements of the FSA; they must be substantially strengthened if the FCA is adequately to be accountable to Parliament and, through Parliament, to the public.

“Without a statutory base for Parliamentary involvement the temptation will always exist for the relevant authorities to try and brush matters under the carpet.”

The Committee said it was also concerned about cost-benefit analysis and called on the Government to conduct greater consultation with firms, panels and representative bodies.

Mr Tyrie criticised the Financial Services Authority for treating the task like a “box-ticking exercise”.

Mr Tyrie said: “Regulatory and cost burdens on the financial services sector often seem to rise inexorably. It is the consumers who have to foot the bill for these cost. Too often the FSA has treated cost-benefit analyses on new regulation as a box-ticking exercise.”