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Financial Services Bill

It is clearly appropriate for full parliamentary scrutiny to apply in instances where the regulations placed on firms will be strengthened. Similarly, it is appropriate for Parliament to scrutinise fully any efforts to reduce the regulatory requirements placed on firms, particularly where such regulations are designed to prevent excessive risk taking. We believe it is very unlikely that any future Government would wish entirely to remove the reporting requirements in this clause. However, in order to ensure that this cannot happen without adequate scrutiny, Amendments 108 and 109 will require the affirmative resolution procedure to be used for any and all regulations made under these powers. I do not believe that it is necessary for sunset clauses to apply in these cases for two main reasons: first, because these clauses are designed as permanent rather than temporary enhancements to the regulatory regime; and, secondly, because they do not prescribe the specific content of regulation—instead, they provide enabling powers. These are designed precisely in order to allow for further subsequent consultation on the detail and to enable future international standards and agreements to be built into these requirements. Sunsetting these clauses would cause confusion and a lack of clarity about the regulatory requirements the industry is expected to meet. In light of this and the strong international commitment to many of these clauses, and given that much of their detailed content will be specified in FSA rules and subject to further consultation, I do not consider that it would be appropriate to sunset these provisions.