There are some changes among the key personnel on the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services after today's annual meeting.

The chair, Jonathan Evans, was re-elected as were the three deputy chairs, Andy Love, Lord Hunt of Wirral and Lord Newby. The group has two new hon secretaries following the decision of Tracey Crouch to step down, although she remains a member of the group. Succeeding her will be Heather Wheeler, elected as Conservative MP for Derbyshire South last year and a qualified member of the Chartered Insurance Institute, and long-standing Conservative MP for Gainborough, Edward Leigh.

The other change is that Jonathan Swift, now Editor-in-Chief of Post and Insurance Age, will take over the lead role in co-ordinating the group's activities from me. This is a role that I have performed since 1990 when the late Sir Robert McCrindle and myself set about creating an all party group to cover the insurance industry, finally establishing the group at the beginning of 1991. I recently wrote about some of the highlights of working with the group over the last 20 years so I am not going to rehearse them all again here.

This is an ideal time to hand over the reins. 20 years is a long time and it has been hugely rewarding to work with Parliamentarians and a wide range of leading figures in the insurance and financial services sector to ensure that government and Parliament are better informed about innumerable issues, large and small. But the main reasons for making the change now is that we are one year into a new-look Parliament with the group successfully reformed and working well, engaging with the industry, pressing regulators and government on key issues and attracting support from across the political spectrum. At the same time, Jonathan Swift has moved up to be Editor-in-Chief of Incisive Media's prestigious stable of insurance brands, publications and events, the very job that I was doing when we started the group. It made for perfect timing.

I am not disappearing and I was asked by Jonathan Evans at today's meeting whether I would still be around - I certainly hope so as I support both Jonathans in the next phase of the group's development. I also intend to keep going with this blog as the pace of regulatory reform accelerates over the next couple of years.

In the run up to the General Election last year I was asked on innumerable occasions: "How are you going to replace John Greenway as chairman of the All Party Group?". The group in question was, of course, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services and the questions prompted by the fact that John Greenway was standing down at the election after 18 years as chair of the group.

The role and the very existence of All Party Groups is back in the headlines with today's report in The Guardian on the links - disclosed and undisclosed - between many groups and lobbying firms, trade associations and commercial interests. This story isn't new - The Times did a very similar exposé in January 2006.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services started work at the beginning of 1991 and I recently reviewed its first 20 years for Post.

The world of parliamentary politics looked very different 20 years ago when the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services arrived on the scene. It wasn't just that there were another six years to go in the long years of Conservative government, or that there weren't any devolved governments and such widespread influence of the European Union in daily life. The insurance industry and the wider financial services sector had a patchy, if not downright poor, relationship with parliament.

The previous few years had seen several pieces of legislation passed that had an adverse impact on the industry and it was frequently the target of unjustified criticism from MPs and Peers. It was also suffering badly from the fall out from the years of scandal at Lloyd's of London, which directly affected more than 60 MPs and Peers who were still Names at the market. Led by vociferous critics like Conservative MP Tom Benyon, they were constantly berating the beleaguered insurance market.

The industry had friends in parliament, however, and they were quick to throw their weight behind the attempt to form a new backbench group to help the industry communicate with parliament better, none more so than the late Sir Robert McCrindle, who was to be elected the group's first chairman in January 1991. Sir Robert, or Bob, as he was universally known, was already a high profile figure in the insurance market, as he was the British Insurance Brokers' Association's parliamentary adviser.

Bob McCrindle, of course, had plenty of contacts on the Conservative benches in both the Commons and the Lords and recruiting from their ranks in a Tory-dominated parliament was never going to be a problem. More of a challenge was finding sufficient opposition members to conform to the rules about opposition representation in all party groups. This is where Post's reputation for always fairly covering the staff side of issues in the industry paid off.

Labour Peer Baroness Turner of Camden was a former trade union official in the sector, having worked at the Prudential and risen to be deputy general secretary of one of the larger unions representing staff in financial services. She saw the value of such a group and encouraged many Labour MPs and Peers to join. She served a deputy chairman from its launch until she stood down from that post after the May 2010 General Election, although she still remains a member.

So much for the background and history: what has the group done and how to assess its value? Its first and foremost aim was to improve communication between the industry and parliament. No one who has had any dealings with the group over the past decade and a half can doubt that it has achieved that, not merely through its own work by helping all the major trade associations and professional bodies understand the importance of good lobbying and how best to achieve results in the often fast running currents of policy formation and political debate.

The second chairman of the group was another Conservative MP -- and former insurance broker -- John Greenway. He took over when Sir Robert McCrindle stood down at the 1992 General Election and served until he too stood down last May

 "It is unthinkable now that there was a time when there wasn't such a group. It has provided a focal point for the industry," says Mr Greenway. "You can take any major issue that has faced the industry during the past 20 years and see that MPs and debates in both houses of parliament have been better informed because of the group: terrorism, both Irish and Islamic; flooding; regulation; employers' liability; Europe; home income plans; the compensation culture; and, more recently a myriad of regulatory challenges are all issues where the role the group has played has proved crucial."

One of the group's early triumphs was to persuade the government to set-up Pool Re when the commercial insurance market withdrew cover following the Baltic Exchange and Canary Wharf bombs in the early 1990s. This initiative was led by another of the group's founder members, John Butterfill - now Sir John - who also stood down last May.

Working in partnership with the Association of Insurance and Risk Managers, the group lobbied the Treasury, eventually convincing it that the market could no longer carry the huge property risks posed by modern terrorism and that a government-backed solution was the only way forward.

The group is more than just about acting as a lobbying point for the industry, however, Mr Greenway says: "The group acts as a focal point in parliament but it is very much about two-way communication. There have been many occasions when the group has been critical of the industry. I believe it has enabled the industry to understand where parliamentarians are coming from in a way that it didn't understand before."

He cites the severe flooding that affected large parts of the UK several times in the last few years as a good example of the value of this two-way communication. "The industry had to warn that it couldn't go on insuring properties in flood prone areas for ever. Previously, this would have brought storms of criticism from backbench MPs but the group, working with the Association of British Insurers, larger companies, the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters and damage management specialists, ensured that there was a proper debate and an adequate chance for MPs representing flood prone areas to hear first hand what the issues were. Equally, it gave those MPs ample opportunity to explain to the industry what their constituents needed in terms of policy coverage and claims support. The industry listened and acted."

This partnership undoubtedly helped turn the pressure back on the government to act to improve flood defences, a debate that will continue to rage for some years to come and has already been tackled by the group under its new chairman Jonathan Evans, a former trade minister and MEP.

The employers' liability crisis earlier in the last decade was another opportunity for the group to show the invaluable role it performs in ensuring that parliament is well-informed rather than mis-informed about such problems. It organised a series of meetings over six months at which employers, trade unions, insurers and brokers could come together - often in the same room for the first time - to explain and discuss the problem. Again, it is not hard to imagine how, just a few years previously, the insurance industry would have been portrayed as the big bad wolf in such a crisis, finding itself the subject of stinging and ill-informed criticism in parliamentary debates. The APPG, living up to its founding ambition of providing a better channel of communication, did much to ensure that this did not happen.

When required the group has produced in depth reports on key topics, helping to shape legislative and regulatory change in such areas as the Compensation Act and the operation of the Financial Ombudsman Scheme. Nowadays, many companies and organisations in the insurance and retail financial services sector see the group as their first port of call when they have important messages they want to get across to MPs.

Often the lobbying of backbench MPs and Peers goes hand-in-hand with discussions with ministers and civil servants as the industry has developed a sophisticated approach to lobbying that is far from the fragmented, almost shambolic, mess that was commonplace when the group started work in 1991.

The full article includes comment on the work of the group from leading figures in the industry.

The colourful, shaming saga of the abuse of Parliamentary expenses just refuses to go away. It is hard to see how it can until several things happen. A new Parliament has to be elected; a new expense system has to be put in place that is fair to MPs and also acceptable to the people who elect them; the perpetrators of the worst abuses have to be held to account; and, greater transparency has to be applied in the future.

The latest up-date on the activities of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services is now available. It covers the busy first few weeks of the autumn session and can be downloaded here APPG News26.pdf

When meeting people in the industry to talk about the political, policy and regulatory scenes one of the most frequent topics at the moment is the future of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services. There seems to be an assumption on the part of some people that just because a few familiar faces will definitely not be there after the next General Election that the group will face a difficult time. I'm not sure I accept this assumption.

The group has always been one of the most active all party groups and this level of activity is set to be sustained as the financial services sector faces up to some significant regulatory and commercial challenges over the next few years. Certainly, this will all take place against the background of major political change with a General Election within the next year and possible reform of the House of Lords, both of which could significantly change the composition of the group.

The group will have to find a new chairman as John Greenway announced two and a half years ago that he would not be re-standing following the redistribution of his current seat in North Yorkshire (So, what did happen in Thirsk & Malton?). John has chaired the group since 1992, when he succeeded the group's founder chairman Sir Robert McCrindle. Similarly, joint secretary Sir John Butterfill announced sometime ago that he was not seeking re-election. More recently, one of the other joint secretaries, Labour MP Jim Cousins, decided to retire at the next election. All three have been tremendous supporters of the group and have helped ensure that there are MPs who have an understanding of the issues that affect the sector. They will be missed.

With 41 MPs and 26 peers currently members of the group, however, they are far from the complete picture. There is significant interest in Parliament in engaging with the insurance and retail financial services markets and the fact that over half the members of the group have attended at least one event so far in the current session helps underline that point. Just a glance at the programme and the range of organisations that want to meet the group demonstrates that there is similarly plenty of interest outside Parliament in using the group as a vehicle for communicating with policymakers, the principal purpose for which it was established in 1991.

I think the other factor people need to bear in mind is that the APPG has always been run above board. It is not a cloak to disguise a lobbying group like some specialist all party groups. It exists to provide a channel of communication on issues that matter to the insurance and retail financial services sector. We frequently arrange meetings on specific topics for the group to which speakers with differing viewpoints are invited and, sometimes, these will be consumer critics of the industry.

Nobody makes any money out of it. It is not sponsored. We (by which I mean Incisive Media) do not take "membership fees" from outside organisations like some all party groups. The only members are Members of Parliament and most of its meetings are open to whoever wants to attend - even rival publications to those owned by Incisive Media have been known to attend!

We provide the secretariat and administrative support, website and newsletter free of charge. Why? Partially because we identified this as a way we could put something back into the markets we serve and partially because it helps keep us close to events that our markets are interested in. For almost identical reasons PricewaterhouseCoopers provides the technical support on the same basis, writing briefing papers and minutes of the public sessions.

However transparent any new regime is and however restrictive it is in allowing people to make money out of being connected to Parliament, we are confident that this group will come through those tests. So, for as long as Parliamentarians want to hear from the industry and the industry wants to engage with them, the group should have a future.

It is already planning a busy autumn session which will be kicked off by Post Magazine's annual Parliamentary reception, which started in 1989 and is now hosted in conjunction with its Business Leaders' Forum.