Consultations

This page contains all current and past public consultations to which ShareSoc has responded. The latest ones are at the top of the list. One of the main activities of ShareSoc is to make sure that the views of private shareholders are communicated, and your interests represented, and one way we do that is by responding to all relevant public consultations. Many of ShareSoc’s adopted policies on specific issues are documented in these consultation responses.

FCA Consultation – Modernising Redress

An FCA consultation on how to improve the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and other consumer redress mechanisms  In November 2024, the FCA issued this consultation, requesting suggestions for improvements to handling complaints/disputes regarding financial services, especially so-called “mass redress events”.   Many of ShareSoc’s campaigns involve situations where numerous individual investors have suffered losses in circumstances that we believe should not have arisen. So, we have considerable experience of representing and trying to obtain redress in such circumstances.  We are lucky to have recently recruited ...

HMRC Consultation – IHT on Pensions

ShareSoc responds to the Chancellor’s proposals on the application of IHT to residual pensions.  Following the budget last autumn, HMRC launched a technical consultation on the implementation of the Chancellor’s proposals to apply inheritance tax (IHT) to unused pensions, upon the death of the pension beneficiary. Note that the consultation explicitly states: As announced at Autumn Budget 2024, from 6 April 2027 most unused pension funds and death benefits will be included within the value of a person’s estate for Inheritance Tax purposes and ...

ShareSoc Evidence to Lords on FCA Enforcement

ShareSoc has submitted an evidence statement to the House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee regarding their consultation on the Financial Conduct Authority’s enforcement guidance proposals.  We reported here that we support the FCA’s proposals to improve the transparency of their enforcement actions.   The need for change was further underlined at a meeting between ShareSoc and the FCA on 14th November, at which we expressed concerns about a specific case.   Under the current regime, the FCA will not disclose whether it is taking, or ...

ShareSoc supports FCA proposal for criminal background checks on owners and controllers of financial institutions

ShareSoc has responded to FCA consultation CP24/11 ShareSoc represents the views of individual investors to Government and Regulators. One way we do this is by responding to their consultations, of which there have been quite a lot recently - we can expect more with the recent change in Government. On 30 July 2024, ShareSoc and UKSA made a joint response to the latest Financial Conduct Authority quarterly consultation CP24/11: FCA Quarterly Consultation No. 44 There were 14 questions in the consultation, but we ...

UK ISA: ShareSoc submits consultation response

UK ISA is a good sign that Government is supportive of UK business and UK companies UK ISA needs a fillip to be fully effective. ShareSoc suggests • removal of stamp duty; and • much more financial education. ShareSoc is pleased to respond to this UK ISA consultation. We strongly suggest that the UK ISA is given a significant fillip by removing the 0.5% stamp duty on purchases of those shares within the UK ISA. Apart from ensuring there is a clear financial incentive to ...

FCA Consultation on Enforcement Practice & Transparency

ShareSoc and UKSA respond to FCA Consultation “CP24/2: Our Enforcement Guide and publicising enforcement investigations - a new approach”. We are delighted that after many years of lobbying by ShareSoc and others, the FCA is bringing forward proposals to improve their enforcement process by increasing transparency and naming firms under investigation A primary operational objective of the FCA is to protect consumers of financial services, including our members, from bad conduct. Investor confidence in the current regulatory regime is very low. Individuals who report ...

ShareSoc response to House of Commons Education Select Committee

On 24 January 2024, ShareSoc submitted its response to the enquiry (click here to read the whole response), where we stressed the importance of educating about savings and investment and the potential role that ShareSoc could play to support teachers, e.g. via the use of ShareSoc Investing Basics videos and the ShareSoc Investor Academy. The House of Commons Education Committee will examine the current state of financial education in England and consider what steps need to be taken to ensure its delivery ...

UKSA and ShareSoc Submission to Labour Party Review of Financial Services

  UKSA and ShareSoc have made the attached submission to the Labour Party’s review, highlighting the issues with the current financial services market that most concern us. 

FCA Consultation GC23/2 Financial Promotions on Social Media

  ShareSoc and UKSA have responded to the FCA’s consultation on financial promotions via social media. We express concern that less experienced investors are vulnerable to simplistic and potentially misleading messages published via social media, which may tempt them into unsuitable, high-risk, investments. We therefore propose stricter regulation of social media messaging that may encourage inappropriate investment. Mark Bentley, Director, ShareSoc

ShareSoc and UKSA Response to Digitisation Task Force Interim report

  In this article we highlighted the significance of the interim report issued by Sir Douglas Flint on behalf of the Digitisation Taskforce (DT) and our concerns about it.  After careful deliberation, ShareSoc and UKSA have now submitted this response to Sir Douglas. Special thanks are due to Mohammed Amin, who co-ordinated our joint response.  We express concern that the proposals in the interim report do not fulfil the DT’s terms of reference. In particular, they do not ensure that the rights of current ...

0.5% Stamp Tax on UK shares – consultation response

Abolish Stamp Duty Tax or reduce it to 0.05%  In a short, 4-page response, to the HMRC Consultation, we re-emphasised the points we made in our 2020 consultation response. Our key points were:   This consultation is fundamentally flawed. It does not discuss the rate of taxation on UK shares, which is currently 0.5% and is hugely uncompetitive with the US, which is the largest securities market in the world.  Our analysis is that:    The original rationale for stamp duty (cost of wax seal ...

FCA DP23-2 Improving the UK regime for asset management

Joint response from UKSA and ShareSoc 22 May 2023  One of the key roles of ShareSoc is to represent the interests of individual investors and we do this by campaigning and lobbying for improvements. Part of what we do on behalf of our members is to respond to consultations such as FCA DP23-2. In a detailed 30-page response, UKSA and ShareSoc made the following key points:  1 - We are pleased that the FCA is consulting on the UK regime for asset management ...