The Treasury Select Committee criticised the content of the Money Advice Service business plan yesterday, stating that the 24 page document for 2012/13 contained only 10 figures.

The Treasury Select Committee was receiving evidence from Adam Phillips, chair of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, Joe Garner, chair of the Financial Services Practitioner Panel, Delroy Corinaldi from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service and David Hawkes from Advice UK.

Committee member Michael Fallon MP asked witness Mr Garner if he was satisfied the business plan really was a business plan.

Mr Garner replied: “We have expressed concerns with MAS at various stages in the process that it doesn’t cover all the questions we would have.

“It is still early days but we have a number of times requested more clarity on what are the specific objectives, how will we measure these objectives and how will the money itself be spent?”

Answering the same question, Mr Phillips said: “It’s lacking in any history which would be quite interesting and it also makes some fairly sweeping generalizations which aren’t well supported and there isn’t sufficient detail in.”

The Committee and other witnesses were also unclear about the explicit role of the MAS.

Chairman George Mudie described the body as “scrambling around to find a role” and that all he picked up from written evidence submitted was the “fear” from witnesses of what the MAS would do while searching for its role.