Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the SME lending proposals in the PRA Consultation CP 16/22 on the Implementation of the Basel 3.1 standards, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of those standards on the supply of funding available to SMEs in (a) the UK and (b) Shipley constituency.

The Government is currently consulting on its proposals for Basel 3.1. This includes proposals for deleting retained EU law including those which relate to the prudential rules on SME lending. The detailed implementation of the Basel package however, has been delegated to the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) as the UK’s expert regulator. The PRA is consulting under an accountability framework agreed by Parliament, and has requested information from firms on specific measures including those relating to lending to SMEs.

The consultation can be found here:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/prudential-regulation/publication/2022/november/implementation-of-the-basel-3-1-standards

The Government continues to work closely with the PRA and businesses to understand the impact of potential changes including for the international competitiveness of the UK, the impact on SME lending and the nature of competition between banks that operate in the domestic market.