Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to introduce legislation to replace the Financial Reporting Council with the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority and to place that body on a statutory footing.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government recognises the importance of having an effective and proportionate regulator of the audit sector and the significance of having a regulator that has the right legislative set-up to do the job. At present, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) will not transition to become the Audit Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA). The name of the regulator is less important than its effectiveness. The FRC has already undergone a substantial transformation since 2018, and we intend to put it on a proper statutory footing as soon as there is availability within the parliamentary schedule.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to mitigate the risk of further avoidable corporate failures pending the introduction of strengthened audit and governance regulations.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The quality of audit regulation and audit itself has seen considerable improvement in the last eight years following the collapse of Carillion; however, we will continue to work closely with the Financial Reporting Council to keep improving the audit market. The government is committed to good governance, and the UK is a world leader in corporate governance. We will take a further step in this direction by launching a consultation to modernise, simplify and streamline the UK’s corporate reporting framework, with the ambition to make the UK’s reporting regime the most proportionate in the world.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on jobs, growth and investment of major corporate collapses linked to audit and governance deficiencies over the past decade.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has not made such an assessment. At one level, almost all corporate collapses can be linked to governance deficiencies, since company directors have a duty to promote the success of the company. Audit deficiencies tend to exacerbate problems rather than being the cause of a company’s collapse. As an example of the impact of a major corporate collapse over the past decade, the failure of Carillion left approximately £4.5bn of debt, affecting around 7,000 first-tier suppliers and contractors, and displacing 19,000 UK jobs.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to publish their proposals for a modernised corporate reporting framework.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
On 21 October 2025, the government announced its intention to launch a consultation to modernise, simplify and streamline the UK’s corporate reporting framework, delivering the most proportionate framework in the world. The consultation will be issued shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill has not yet been published; and when they plan to publish it.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Due to the current volume of legislation before Parliament, the draft Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill will not be published for pre-legislative scrutiny in this session. Both houses of Parliament were informed of this in July 2025. The Government’s plans for legislation in subsequent sessions will be set out in the usual way through the King’s Speech.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the timetable for publishing the secondary legislation following the enactment of the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Powers in the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 have already been used to introduce secondary legislation. The Noise Emission in the Environment by Equipment for Use Outdoors (Amendment and Transitional) Regulations 2025 was the first statutory instrument to be laid (13 October). Other secondary legislation will follow, after appropriate consultation, as is required by the Act. As announced in the Budget, this includes consulting in early 2026 on proposals to tackle the prevalence of unsafe products sold online and streamline the processes for enforcement.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the recent findings from Which? that nearly 800 products for sale on online marketplaces were similar or identical to items already flagged as unsafe by the Office for Product Safety and Standards in the past year, whether they plan to introduce a duty for online marketplaces to tackle unsafe products sold on their platforms; and if so, when.
Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
UK product safety law is clear: all products must be safe before being placed on the market. However, it continues to be too easy for non-compliant goods to be made available to UK consumers online. The Government has therefore introduced the Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025. The Act allows us to introduce clear and proportionate obligations on online marketplaces to improve consumer safety and ensure fair market competition.
We have committed to consult on proposals to modernise these responsibilities in early 2026. This will build upon best practice to create an effective and proportionate regulatory framework.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have received from lenders asking for higher funding limits under the Growth Guarantee Scheme, and what plans they have to extend funding limits for lenders under the Scheme.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
The Government and the British Business Bank maintain constant dialogue with Growth Guarantee Scheme Delivery Partners to ensure the terms and capacity of the Scheme remain appropriate. With the announcement of resources to facilitate an additional £500 million of lending through the Scheme to businesses affected by turbulence in global trade, the British Business Bank are working with Delivery Partners on how best to allocate this additional capacity. Funding allocations for future years are subject to negotiation.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the British Business Bank regarding the expansion of the Growth Guarantee Scheme.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
The Growth Guarantee Scheme plays a vital role in helping more businesses access affordable finance for growth and investment, which is why the Government provided resources to facilitate an additional £500 million of lending through the Scheme to businesses affected by turbulence in global trade. DBT and HMT officials work closely with British Business Bank counterparts to ensure the Scheme’s terms and parameters remain effective and impactful.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the information provided by the UK Export Support Service is sufficient to prepare UK businesses who may be impacted by the European Union carbon border adjustment mechanism.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
The Export Support Service continues to inform UK businesses of upcoming EU regulations and their impact to their trading activities through a range of channels. This includes the "Unlock Europe" webinar series hosted by the Export Academy, which will have a session on CBAM on 23 April. We are tracking forthcoming EU regulations which will impact UK exporters and are in dialogue with business representative organisations to understand how we can best support businesses to understand and prepare for changes which may impact them.