Accountability of regulators Regulator engagement with HM Treasury, external stakeholders, and Parliament Accountability to Parliament Engagement with Parliamentary Committees
Revoking retained EU law in order to move to a comprehensive FSMA model of regulation, where the independent regulators set the direct regulatory requirements which apply to firms in their rulebooks, will give the regulators significant new rule-making responsibilities.
	Given these new responsibilities, it is important that the mechanisms by which Parliament holds the regulators to account are strengthened. This will ensure there continues to be appropriate democratic input into, and oversight of, the regulators’ activities.
	As Parliament sets the regulators’ objectives and gives them the powers to pursue those objectives, Parliament has a unique and special role in relation to the scrutiny and oversight of the financial services regulators.
	The system of Parliamentary select committees is particularly important in financial services policy and in relation to the scrutiny of the work of the regulators. Relevant select committees, and the Treasury Select Committee (TSC) in particular, provide scrutiny of financial services policy in the following ways:
Select committee inquiries: Committees choose their own subjects of inquiry and decide the duration and approach that will be used for each inquiry. The committees have the power to send for "persons, papers and records" which they decide will be relevant, as per the House of Commons Standing Order No. 152. Other committees, such as the former House of Lords EU Financial Affairs Sub Committee and the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee, have also played a key role in scrutinising financial services policy.
Regular hearings to scrutinise the work of the financial services regulators: the TSC routinely examines the regulators’ approaches to policy and administration.
Pre-commencement hearings: Parliament, through the TSC, conducts pre-commencement hearings following the appointment of the Chair and Chief Executive of the FCA and the Chief Executive of the PRA.
	There are also long-established scrutiny arrangements in place for Parliament to hold Ministers of the Crown accountable for the work of HM Treasury and the UK’s financial services regulators. These arrangements include:
Government ministers regularly responding to oral and written questions in both Houses of Parliament.
Government policy being scrutinised through a range of Parliamentary debates.
Legislation is debated and scrutinised according to the procedures for primary and secondary legislation.
Both Houses of Parliament being kept informed of policy and regulatory initiatives through the making of ministerial statements and by the laying of important documents before Parliament, including the annual reports of the financial services regulators.
	The FRF Review proposed two measures building on these existing arrangements that seek to ensure that Parliament has the appropriate tools to conduct scrutiny of regulators’ rule-making and other functions in the manner that Parliament sees fit. The requirements introduced by the Act are set out below. The measures will apply to the FCA, the PRA and the PSR, as well as the Bank in its regulation of central counterparties and central securities depositories.