Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 16 April (HL6564), whether they plan to insist on a loosening of impediments to access of the UK financial services sector to the United States financial services sector in seeking a new trade agreement with the United States.

On 8 May the UK government announced a landmark economic deal with the US, making the UK the first country to reach an agreement with President Trump. We are continuing talks which will look at increasing digital trade, access for our world-leading services industries and improving supply chains.

The US and the UK are each other's largest single country trading partners for financial services. Following discussions between the Chancellor and US Treasury Secretary Bessent, we agreed to use the upcoming Financial Regulatory Working Group (FRWG) to discuss collaboration on digital assets, including to support the use and responsible growth of digital assets, and the proposals put forward by the Commissioner on the Security and Exchange Commission for a transatlantic sandbox for digital securities.