UK Lords Issue Warning on Regulators' Accountability

In a letter to UK Investment Minister Jason Stockwood, the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee has warned that the pending Financial Services and Markets Bill could weaken regulators’ accountability to Parliament, as reported by Investment Week.

Sheila Noakes, Chair of the Committee, wrote that clause 17 of the Bill would render the Committee’s work “ineffective.” The clause removes the requirement for the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to “have regard” to the regulatory principles set out in the Financial Services and Markets Act of 2000, and to demonstrate how they have done so when notifying the Committee of their actions. “In effect, the framework of accountability to Parliament, previously an integral part of the principles-based system, is eliminated,” Noakes wrote. As such, she argued, the Committee would no longer be able to perform the role that legislation and parliamentary resolutions require of it.

The Bill, introduced as the Enhancing Financial Services Bill in the 2026 King’s Speech, delivers elements of the Chancellor’s Leeds Reforms package announced last year. The government has presented it as a way to update how the sector is overseen and encourage growth, paring back reporting obligations and procedural steps it views as redundant or of little practical use. Noakes acknowledged that any erosion of accountability “may not have been the government’s intention,” but asked to raise the matter with the minister directly.