Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment HM Treasury has made of the effectiveness of the operation of the Critical Third Parties regime during the Google Cloud disruption of 20 October 2026.

The regime gives the financial regulators, jointly the Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority, statutory powers to oversee critical third parties such as Google Cloud. HMT engaged with the regulators' response to the disruption through standard channels. The regulators continue to engage with Google Cloud following the disruption on 20 October 2026, in line with their responsibilities under the Critical Third Parties regime

The regulators’ approach to operational resilience recognises that, from time to time, disruptions will occur that prevent financial sector firms and CTPs from operating as usual. Firms remain responsible for their own operational resilience and for managing third party risks, including where they rely on the systemic services provided by a CTP. The CTP regime complements rather than replaces those existing responsibilities. CTPs are required to manage risks to their systemic services and to respond and recover effectively when operational disruption occurs.