Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department plans to take to reduce regulations on financial service businesses.

In the March Regulation Action Plan, the government committed to cutting the administrative costs of regulation for business by 25% by the end of the Parliament. This will take a whole-of-government approach to establish a baseline for the administrative costs of regulation and deliver an ambitious programme of reforms that remove or streamline administrative processes.

The Action Plan also announced that it will consolidate the Payments Systems Regulator into the Financial Conduct Authority, to provide a more streamlined approach to regulation for businesses. It also confirmed that the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority are taking steps to review and streamline reporting requirements for financial services firms.

The Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, part of the Industrial Strategy, will set out the government’s next steps to ensure that the UK’s financial services regulatory environment is proportionate, predictable and internationally competitive. This will be published on 15 July .