The Government has been given the go ahead to revoke EU financial services regulations and replace them with new UK rules, following inclusion of a planned bill in today’s Queen’s Speech.

A new Financial Services and Markets Bill will be introduced this year.

Prince Charles, giving the speech to Parliament on behalf of the Queen who was unable to attend due to mobility issues, said the legislation would strengthen the UK's financial services industry.

The Government has said that as well as revoking EU law that has been retained since Brexit, the bill would update the objectives of regulators to ensure a greater focus on growth an international competitiveness as well as making the UK a more attractive place to invest by cutting red tape.

Investment platform AJ Bell has called for the new bill to act as a catalyst to formally address concerns over the advice and guidance boundary.

Tom Selby, head of retirement policy at the platform, said: "The introduction of the Consumer Duty has the potential to transform UK financial services for the better.

"By moving from rules-based to outcomes-based regulation, firms should be able to focus more on introducing interventions and prompts that help customers make better financial decisions.

"However, the effectiveness of this regulatory shift risks being undermined by the lack of clarity over the advice/guidance boundary.

"The new Financial Services Bill provides a legislative platform to rethink that paradigm. Addressing this issue would fit neatly into the Government’s flagship ‘levelling-up’ agenda, as it is those on lower incomes who cannot afford advice who most benefit from guidance."

The Online Safety Bill will also continue to proceed through Parliament after also being included in the Queen’s Speech as carrying on. The bill is currently at the committee stage in the House of Commons.

Under the bill social media companies and search engines will be responsible for preventing paid-for scam adverts on their platforms. 

Matt Burton, chief risk officer at wealth management and Financial Planning firm Quilter, said: "For far too long the onus has been on diligent individuals and financial services providers to identify scam adverts and report them to search engines, the regulator and the police instead of the search engines undertaking basic due diligence to filter out fraudulent adverts in the first place. This Bill is the perfect opportunity to require search engines and social media platforms to remove sham investment and impersonation scams promptly from their sites, and conduct the necessary due diligence to stop them from appearing."

Other announcements made in the Queen’s Speech include plans from the Government to give councils the power to double council tax on ‘unused’ second homes.

There are also plans to introduce a Renters Reform Bill, with restrictions on buy-to-let investors evicting tenants.