The House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee, the cross-party body tasked with scrutinising financial regulation and chaired by Baroness Noakes DBE, has opened a new inquiry into the use and effectiveness of regulatory sandboxes across the UK financial services industry.
The inquiry will look at how both regulators and firms make use of these sandboxes, and, crucially, whether the schemes genuinely succeed in encouraging innovation within the sector.
Committee members intend to examine several specific strands as part of their work. These include whether regulatory sandboxes actually support innovation, what role they play in shaping the wider development of regulation, and whether they represent value for money and deliver benefit to the public. The Committee will also look closely at how the process used to select which firms are admitted to a sandbox might, in itself, influence competitive dynamics across the market.
The Financial Services Regulation Committee sits within the House of Lords and is responsible for holding financial regulators and regulatory frameworks to account. Baroness Noakes DBE chairs the Committee, including its oversight of this newly launched inquiry.
As part of the process, the Committee is calling for evidence and views from anyone with relevant expertise or interest in the topic, specifically encouraging submissions from firms that have participated in a regulatory sandbox as well as those that have not.
Financial Services Regulation Committee chair Baroness Noakes DBE said, “We have launched this inquiry to assess the impact of regulatory sandboxes. There has been surprisingly little evaluation of how sandboxes work in practice and what effect they have, even as new types of sandboxes continue to be introduced. We want to examine how they are used by both the regulators and the firms that participate, and whether they are successful in driving innovation.
“We welcome evidence and views from anyone with expertise or interest in this area, especially from firms that both have and have not participated in a sandbox.”
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
