Accountability of regulators Regulator engagement with HM Treasury, external stakeholders, and Parliament Relationship of the Bank of England with HM Treasury, Parliament and external stakeholders
Currently, the Bank is subject to several mechanisms which promote accountability and transparency in its regulation of CCPs and CSDs. These include notifying HM Treasury if it makes, alters or revokes any rules, and undertaking consultation and cost-benefit analysis prior to introducing any changes. The current mechanisms are appropriate for the Bank’s limited existing rule-making powers.
	The Act introduces a range of measures designed to strengthen the Bank’s relationship with HM Treasury, accountability to Parliament and stakeholder engagement to ensure these aspects are appropriate for the new general rule-making power. These mechanisms are very similar to the measures being introduced in the Act for the PRA and the FCA, and in many cases the Act simply applies those measures directly to the Bank.
	There are two measures in the Act which are slightly different to those the Act introduces for the PRA and the FCA. Firstly, the Act introduces the ability for HM Treasury to make recommendations to the Bank about matters to which it should have regard when advancing its objectives and principles for its new rule-making power. The Act sets out that HM Treasury must do so at least once every Parliament, publish the recommendations, and lay them before Parliament. This measure aligns the Bank with the existing ability for HM Treasury to make recommendations to the PRA and the FCA. The Act also applies the new requirement for the PRA and the FCA to respond to recommendations made by HM Treasury to the Bank.
	Secondly, the Act introduces a requirement for the Bank to report annually on the efforts it has made to engage with industry stakeholders aside from those that it directly regulates (i.e. the CCPs and CSDs themselves) and to give a summary of that engagement. This measure is intended to increase transparency around the Bank’s engagement with the wider market such as the firms who use CCP and CSD services. The Act does not specify exactly how the Bank should conduct this engagement, the exact stakeholders it should engage with or the frequency of the engagement, leaving these aspects to the Bank’s judgment.