Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-10-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if it his policy to advocate for passporting for British financial services after the UK leaves the EU; and what steps the Government is taking to retain passporting for British financial services.

Simon Kirby

The “passporting” arrangements set out in the various pieces of EU financial services legislation are open to members of the EU and the EEA.

Since the referendum, HM Treasury has been working to assess in detail the implications for the UK-based financial services sector of existing “passporting” arrangements, of alternative market access arrangements which exist for countries outside the EU (known as equivalence), and of other interactions between UK and EU markets within and beyond EU law.

We are clear that the rights to access EU markets currently provided by these “passporting” arrangements are of great importance to the many UK-based financial services firms that make use of them.

As the Chancellor has said, we will place a very high priority on getting the right solution with our European Union partners for the financial services sector. Our objective will be to ensure that the parts of the financial services sector that do business in Europe are able to continue doing so.