Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to bring forward proposals to block public listings on national security grounds.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The previous government consulted on a power to block listings on national security grounds and published a summary of responses to this consultation in December 2021. The government keeps all policy under review.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department plans to take to help incentive retail investment in domestic public companies.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to reinvigorating our capital markets to deliver growth across the UK and is pursuing ambitious reforms to make our markets even more competitive.
This is why we supported the implementation of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) listing reforms, and are supportive of the reform to overhaul the Prospectus rules to improve access for retail investors in the capital raising process.
The Government is also taking forward work to improve the information and support available to retail investors to help with their decision-making. This includes reforms to the UK’s retail disclosure regime and exploring options to expand the availability of investment support through the joint Government and FCA review of the boundary between financial advice and guidance.
Additionally, individuals can also save up to £20,000 into an Individual Savings Account (ISA) each year, including Stocks and Shares ISAs, and any savings income received within an ISA is tax free.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government plans to accept all recommendations of the Digitisation Taskforce Interim Report, published July 2023.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The work of the Digitisation Taskforce is ongoing and it has not yet made any recommendations to government. The government looks forward to the taskforce providing its final report and will set out its response after that.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what further fiscal steps she is taking to help increase the international competitiveness of the UK's listing regime.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to reinvigorating our capital markets to deliver growth across the UK and is pursuing ambitious reforms to make our markets even more competitive. The Chancellor will announce any fiscal decisions at the Budget in the usual way.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to increase private investment in scale-up companies.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This government has been clear: our number one mission is driving economic growth to improve the lives of the British people. To grow our economy, we need more high quality, long-term investment. This means creating a new partnership with businesses and making sure Britain is the best place in the world to invest.
The government is strengthening the British Business Bank’s ability to support the UK’s fastest growing, most innovative companies by establishing the British Growth Partnership.
The British Growth Partnership is a new, pathfinder approach to the partnership between the British Business Bank and institutional investors that will further the government's goal, as set out in the Pensions Investment Review, of encouraging more UK pension fund investment into UK growth assets. The British Business Bank, the UK's largest domestic venture capital investor, will launch a new fund to attract pension and institutional investment into venture capital and innovative businesses, with the aim of making investments by the end of 2025.
The government expect both successful bidders of the Long-Term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) competition, Schroders and ICG, to begin making investments via their new funds in late 2024, supported by pensions capital from Phoenix Group, with the aim of generating over a billion pounds of investment into UK science and technology companies.
To provide greater certainty for investors and businesses, we have extended the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and the Venture Capital Trust (VCT) schemes by ten years to 5 April 2035. This will ensure the schemes continue to be available to support scale-up companies.
Finally, in April 2024, the British Business Bank and Innovate UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding to help create new pathways for private investment into scale-ups, to better scale firms and address regional disparities.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will negotiate a new financial services memorandum of understanding with the EU that includes measures on green finance.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Green finance measures are covered by the existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing a framework for financial services regulatory cooperation between the EU and the UK.
The MoU is published online:
UK-EU Memorandum of Understanding on Financial Services Cooperation - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Joint Statements following meetings of the Joint EU-UK Financial Regulatory Forum, established by the MoU, are published online:
Joint EU-UK Financial Regulatory Forum - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to track green finance flows into the UK; and how will this data be used to promote investment in the green economy.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to leading the world in sustainable finance by making the UK a global hub for green and transition finance activity, and delivering a world-leading sustainable finance regulatory framework.
The 2023 Green Finance Strategy committed to develop a pilot model to track net zero investment within the UK. This research has now concluded, and Government is considering, alongside relevant stakeholders, how to build on this research and whether to repeat the exercise in future.
Internationally, the UK is proud to be actively involved in the G20 Finance track’s work on sustainable finance. Through that work, we have helped develop principles for climate transition plans for financial institutions. The Chancellor herself made interventions on climate and sustainable finance when visiting Rio for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in July.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if her Department has plans to bring forward legislative proposals on the regulation of securities tokenisation.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government recognises the potential of tokenisation to transform the UK’s financial services sector by enhancing efficiency, increasing liquidity, and strengthening risk management.
The government is taking forward the new Digital Securities Sandbox, which will allow the Treasury and financial regulators to assess how securities can be tokenised including through the use of Distributed Ledger Technology. In particular, the sandbox will assess whether the existing regulatory framework appropriately support and regulates such assets, and whether any changes are needed. The Treasury will report to Parliament on lessons learnt through the sandbox.
Additionally, the Ministry of Justice has introduced into Parliament the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill, which will confirm in statute the common law position that certain digital assets can possess personal property rights.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions she has had with her international counterparts on the adoption of sustainability disclosure requirements in line with global standards.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to leading the world in sustainable finance by making the UK a global hub for green and transition finance activity, and delivering a world-leading sustainable finance regulatory framework.
The 2023 Green Finance Strategy committed to develop a pilot model to track net zero investment within the UK. This research has now concluded, and Government is considering, alongside relevant stakeholders, how to build on this research and whether to repeat the exercise in future.
Internationally, the UK is proud to be actively involved in the G20 Finance track’s work on sustainable finance. Through that work, we have helped develop principles for climate transition plans for financial institutions. The Chancellor herself made interventions on climate and sustainable finance when visiting Rio for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in July.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking at (a) the G7, (b) the G20 and (c) other multilateral forums to promote (i) sustainable finance and (ii) climate-related investments.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to leading the world in sustainable finance by making the UK a global hub for green and transition finance activity, and delivering a world-leading sustainable finance regulatory framework.
The 2023 Green Finance Strategy committed to develop a pilot model to track net zero investment within the UK. This research has now concluded, and Government is considering, alongside relevant stakeholders, how to build on this research and whether to repeat the exercise in future.
Internationally, the UK is proud to be actively involved in the G20 Finance track’s work on sustainable finance. Through that work, we have helped develop principles for climate transition plans for financial institutions. The Chancellor herself made interventions on climate and sustainable finance when visiting Rio for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting in July.