Select committee: Treasury Committee
Recommendation 7
Fifth Report - The Future Framework for Regulation of Financial Services
Published 6 Jul 2021
Paragraph 50
Addressed to HM Treasury
Treasury Committee Future of Financial Services All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
If done with a deft approach, there may be a role for activity-based principles or “have regards” to allow the Government to instruct the regulators, at a more micro level, how it wishes them to approach specific types of business sector. The Government can already instruct regulators more broadly on how to do this through remit letters. But the Government should be sparing in its approach: the strategic and operational objectives, combined with principles and ‘have regards’ that are set out in their remit letters, are already numerous and expanding, to the point where regulators have to choose which to prioritise on a regular basis when drafting new policy proposals. The creation of too many activity-based principles would add a further layer of issues to which regulators must have regard.
From: Treasury Committee, Fifth Report - The Future Framework for Regulation of Financial Services (HC 147), paragraph 50, 6 July 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 20 September 2021 (deadline 6 September 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it is considering the Committee's recommendations alongside the consultation responses and does not intend to respond to each in detail, as that "would pre-judge" a second consultation due in the autumn.
- The government "agrees with the Committee that the independence of the regulators is vital" and is "committed to preserving the regulators' operational independence".
- On moving on-shored EU law into regulators' rulebooks, it "notes" the Committee's view and says its proposed approach is that independent regulators set direct requirements within a policy framework set by government and Parliament.
- It "welcome[s]" the Committee's recommendation of a "targeted approach" to Select Committee scrutiny, and "notes" the Committee's conclusion on a new committee or body, saying structure of scrutiny is "rightly a matter for Parliament".
- It commits to bring forward "detailed proposals in a second consultation in the autumn".