Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to ensure that financial services regulators fulfil their obligations under their secondary objective on international competitiveness and economic growth.

Effective, proportionate regulation is key to a thriving UK economy and delivering the government’s mission to drive the inclusive growth and international competitiveness of the UK’s financial services sector. The government is working closely with the regulators to deliver the government’s vision for the sector, and ministers meet with the FCA and PRA regularly to engage on this.

The government is required to write to the Prudential Regulation Committee and the FCA at least once in each Parliament, making recommendations about aspects of economic policy they should have regard to as they consider the advancement of the PRA’s and FCA’s objectives and the discharge of their duties. These letters must be laid before Parliament and published.

The FCA and PRA are required to report to the Treasury on how they have advanced their competitiveness and growth objectives. They published the first reports in July, which set out how they have begun to adapt their approach in light of the new objectives. The reports can be found here:

• https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/corporate/sicgo-report-2023-24.pdf
• https://beta.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/prudential-regulation/report/scgo-report.pdf

The Chief Executive of the FCA and the Chief Executive of the PRA have recently given speeches setting out more details on how they are implementing the new objectives. These can be found here:

• https://www.fca.org.uk/news/speeches/growth-mission-possible
• https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2024/october/sam-woods-speech-at-annual-city-banquet-at-mansion-house

The government will continue to work closely with the FCA and PRA to ensure they continue to embed these secondary objectives, in support of the government’s wider growth mission.