Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to engage with international financial service businesses on the Government's approach to Clause 37 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023.

The Government published a Call for Proposals on 9 May 2023, seeking views on what additional metrics the regulators should publish to support scrutiny of their work embedding and advancing their new secondary growth and competitiveness objectives.

The Call for Proposals also set out the Government’s proposed approach to the exercise of the power of direction in Clause 37 of the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which is now section 39 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. It asked respondents whether they agreed with the Government’s proposed approach.

The Call for Proposals was open to all persons, including international financial services businesses, and closed on 4 July. The Treasury is currently analysing the responses and will respond in due course.

More broadly, international comparisons were considered by the Government in the design of the new secondary growth and competitiveness objectives as part of the Future Regulatory Framework Review. For example, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan have growth or competitiveness embedded in their regulatory frameworks, and this is something that the Government considered when introducing the new secondary growth and competitiveness objectives for the regulators.