Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on short selling the financial market of The Short Selling (Notification Thresholds) Regulations 2021; and what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to regulate short selling in the future.

Short selling is regulated in the UK under the Short Selling Regulation, introduced in 2012. As with all regulation, the Treasury works closely with the regulators and market participants to monitor the effectiveness of the regulatory regime, in line with the government’s objectives of supporting economic growth and financial stability.

The Short Selling (Notification Thresholds) Regulations 2021 lowered the threshold for the reporting of net short positions to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), in relation to the issued share capital of a company that has shares admitted to trading on a trading venue, to 0.1%. HM Treasury will continue to consider with the FCA whether the notification threshold remains appropriate given market conditions.