Emma RadmoreWhile the Treasury has heralded the progress made since the Edinburgh Reforms were announced a year ago, the Treasury Committee is less pleased.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Bim Afolami, focussed on the publication of the next steps on financial advice and guidance, to note that this paper delivers the 22nd out of the 31 reforms. The Treasury Committee, however, described the “flagship” reform programme as a “damp squib”. Its view is that 6 of the actions the Government says it has delivered are not yet complete, while a further 6 are not really reforms (it gave the example of welcoming papers and publishing documents). On the actions that can properly be called reforms, the Committee expressed scepticism as to the value of some of the changes – citing the plan to change the Investment Manager exemption as one that would have no economic impact.
It also criticised the length of time the Treasury has been taking between announcing a policy objective and implementing the changes, including the time between a consultation ending and the policy changes that result being announced.
Harriet Baldwin said that Treasury is right to look at updating regulation, but that, 12 months on from the announcement of the reforms, there is a notable lack of progress or economic impact.