HMT progress update on Regulation Action Plan

HM Treasury has published a policy paper, setting out a six-month progress update to the UK Government's Regulation Action Plan, originally launched in March. It reflects on commitments it has delivered upon, including with UK regulators, and outlines a series of forward-looking initiatives aimed at reducing regulatory burdens and fostering economic growth in several key areas for financial services which are set out below.

In particular:

• Aligning key regulators' activities and decisions more closely with the Government's Growth Mission. HMT intend to reform the Growth Duty so that the legal framework is clearer, more focused and ensures regulators must consider and promote growth. It will work with regulators to ensure they have clarity from government regarding what growth means for them.
• Launching a Regulator Dashboard, displaying performance against KPIs and authorisation processing times.
• Reviewing responses to the consultation on Financial Ombudsman Service reforms, with plans to legislate when Parliamentary time allows.
• Consolidating the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervisory functions of 23 professional services supervisory bodies into the FCA.
• A series of policy sprints run by the UK Department of Business and Trade, to identify regulatory barriers impacting innovative business models and high potential scale-ups.
• Consulting on the establishment of an AI Growth Lab, a cross-economy sandbox, to enable careful supervised deployment of responsible AI applications that existing regulation limits.

To advance its commitment to reducing regulatory burdens on business, the UK Department of Business Trade also launched a new business questionnaire named "Unlocking Business: Reform Driven by You" to seek input from businesses, investors and organisations on the most burdensome regulations so it can deliver a pro-business programme of regulatory reform.

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