On 12 February 2019, the House of Commons’ Treasury Committee published a letter from its Chair to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen MP. The letter concerns the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.
In the letter the Treasury Committee thanks Mr Glen and members of the UK regulatory authorities for appearing before it and answering questions on the powers given to them by the statutory instrument. The letter also adds that the Treasury Committee will hold the UK regulatory authorities to their commitment to consult on changes to their rules and their commitment to keep the Treasury Committee and Parliament informed of those changes.
The letter states that given the wide reaching scope of the powers that are being provided to the regulators the Treasury Committee believes it important that the statutory instrument is debated on the floor of the House of Commons rather than in committee and such debate has been requested to the Leader of the House.
The final part of the letter notes the Government’s proposal for a further statutory instrument – Equivalence Determinations for Financial Services and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. In relation to this statutory instrument the Treasury Committee asks the following questions:
- Why HM Treasury requires the power to designate third countries as equivalent, given the regulators already have a temporary permissions regime to enable them to carry out their objectives in the event of a no deal?
- Why, if the power is needed, it is only being granted for 12 months, rather than for the same length of time as the aforementioned temporary permissions regime?
