Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of dematerialisation on retail investor participation in UK capital markets.

In July, the Digitisation Taskforce published its final report. The Taskforce, chaired by Sir Douglas Flint, assessed how the UK can eliminate the use of paper share certificates for traded companies, which create inefficiencies and costs for companies and investors, and improve the intermediated system of share ownership so that investors are better able to exercise rights associated with shares which intermediaries hold on their behalf.

These are important steps as part of the government’s Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy to make UK capital markets more efficient, resilient and competitive.

The government has recently established the Dematerialisation Market Action Taskforce, led by Mark Austin, to take forward the recommended reforms.