Find out more about the repeal and replacement of assimilated law under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, including key documents, next steps, our core principles for managing this work, and the 'designated activities regime'.
The Treasury is repealing certain firm-facing requirements in assimilated law (previously retained EU law). We are replacing those provisions, where appropriate, with our rules.
There is a significant amount of assimilated law, and its repeal and replacement has an impact on our Handbook[1]. To manage this, we have developed some principles to inform our approach to the replacement of assimilated law in our Handbook.
In some cases, we may need to take a different approach in the short term. For example, if we need to:
- replace assimilated law to address an emerging harm
- manage the overall pace of the process
Depending on the area, we may make holistic or targeted changes, or no change at all. In some areas, provisions may be deleted without replacement rules. We make policy changes, where appropriate, subject to consultation and cost benefit analysis.
In some cases, the Treasury will use the new ‘designated activities regime’ (DAR) when replacing assimilated law provisions.
Repeal and replacement documents
Find out what we have been doing and next steps for key documents.
Our principles for replacing assimilated law in our Handbook
We will generally replace assimilated law provisions in line with some core principles. These principles seek to support our overarching aim for the Handbook: to enhance the overall user experience by making it clear, accessible and navigable, while reducing regulatory costs.
The principles are as follows.
1. Consolidate regulatory requirements
Regulatory requirements are currently spread across multiple sources, including:
- assimilated law
- primary and secondary UK legislation
- technical standards
- regulators’ rules
We’ll aim to consolidate and integrate all regulatory provisions for which we are responsible into the Handbook, as far as possible, so that, over time, it becomes the ‘one-stop shop’ for firms.
Consolidation is likely to increase the length of the Handbook, but it will help reduce the regulatory burden by making it easier to find the relevant provision.
2. Use the current Handbook structure
To avoid disruption, we’ll incorporate new rules into the Handbook’s existing structure.
The Handbook is made up of different sourcebooks, including:
These sourcebooks are grouped into blocks, such as the Business Standards block, which includes COBS.
We’ll only create new sourcebooks where necessary: for example, where the requirements are self-contained and large enough to justify a separate sourcebook.
3. Consider if we need to modify existing Handbook rules
We’ll consider if any existing Handbook rules sufficiently overlap with assimilated law provisions in terms of scope and impact.
If so, that assimilated law could be repealed without us needing to replace it.
Otherwise, we could modify or extend our existing Handbook rules to adequately replicate assimilated law provisions without adding in entirely new rules or sections.
4. Rely on outcomes
We’ll consider if we need to recreate prescriptive assimilated law requirements, or if higher-level rules, like the Consumer Duty, can achieve the same outcome.
5. Reduce complexity
Our aim is to:
- draft rules using our Handbook format and style, rather than keeping the language and structure of assimilated law
- align standards when addressing similar thematic issues across different files
