Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, whether he plans to (a) retain, (b) replace and (c) revoke the Deposit Guarantee Scheme Regulations 2015.

Retained EU law in financial services is not repealed automatically by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. Instead, the Financial Services and Markets Bill repeals retained EU law in financial services so that it can be replaced with an approach to regulation designed for the UK. This includes the Deposit Guarantee Scheme Regulations 2015, which are listed in Schedule 1 of the Bill.

As part of the Edinburgh Reforms, the government published “Building a Smarter Financial Services Framework for the UK “, which sets out its approach to repealing and replacing retained EU law in financial services using the powers in the Financial Services and Markets Bill. This includes identifying the first two “tranches” of reforms.

The Deposit Guarantee Scheme Regulations 2015 will not form part of the first two tranches of reforms, and the government will set out plans regarding these regulations in due course.

Much of the UK’s deposit protection framework is already delegated to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and sits in PRA rules. These rules are not repealed by the Financial Services and Markets Bill. The rules include, among other things, the depositor coverage limit, which is currently set at £85,000 per eligible person, per bank.