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.

Note that some of the documents referenced in links are pdf files. You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed to be able to open and read these documents. Most PCs already have that software installed, but if not you can download a free copy from https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/


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 ...

HM Treasury Consultation
PRIIPs and UK Retail Disclosure

ShareSoc Response   A key element of ShareSoc’s activities is lobbying Government/regulators and campaigning for change, to improve the lot of individual investors. One way we do this is by responding to Government consultations. We recently responded to the Treasury consultation on PRIIPS and UK Retail Disclosure which closed on 3rd March 2023. We made the following key points: We are pleased that the Government is doing this consultation. We agree with the logic set out in the Minister’s foreword and in particular with the statement ...

Review of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance

With apologies for not publishing this News Item earlier, on 20 October, ShareSoc responded to the Public Consultation on the Review of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance What we would like is a fiduciary obligation, that requires the nominee to have a  clear duty to vote and to take account of beneficial owners’ views. We are still considering how best to express our views on this issue and in particular whether it should be a responsibility and whether it should be in ...

Financial Reporting Council Consultation Response: Firm-level Audit Quality Indicators

On 18 August 2022, UKSA and ShareSoc submitted a joint response to the Financial Reporting Council with our comments on their consultation on firm-level Audit Quality Indicators (AQIs). We made the following key points: Definition of audit quality We understand from its various recent publications that the FRC has a definition of high quality audits as audits that: provide investors and other stakeholders with a high-level of assurance that financial statements give a true and fair view; comply with both the spirit and the ...

ShareSoc/UKSA Joint response to IFRS Foundation International Sustainability Standards Board Consultation

In a joint UKSA/ShareSoc response on 29 July 2022, we said We support the creation of the International Sustainability Standards Board and wish to see it succeed in its mission of developing high-quality global standards for sustainability reporting by companies, which should lead to mitigate against the confusion of the complex web of sustainability standards that currently exists. In order to succeed as global standards, the IFRS Sustainability Standards need to be adopted by the local authorities of countries and regions ...