Queen's Speech 2021 - Dormant Assets Bill

Dormant Assets Bill

The purpose of the Bill is to:

• ● Expand the Dormant Assets Scheme into the insurance and pensions, investment and wealth management, and securities sectors.

• ● Enable the social and environmental focus of the English portion of funds to be set through secondary legislation, so that over time the Scheme is able to respond more flexibly to changing social and environmental needs in England. This is in line with the model used in the devolved administrations.

  The main benefits of the Bill would be:

• ● Unlocking around £880 million for social and environmental initiatives across the UK.

• ● Protecting dormant asset owners and participating businesses while putting assets lying idle from a wider range of financial sectors to good use.

• ● Delivering on public commitments to expand the Scheme and maintain strong, voluntary engagement with a broad range of industry participants.

  The main elements of the Bill are:

• ● Expanding the Scheme into new asset classes and improving consumer protection in reuniting people with forgotten money.

• ● Aligning the model for how dormant assets funding is allocated in England with that used in the devolved administrations. This will enable Ministers to set, through secondary legislation, more specific purposes for the allocation of funding within the general “social or environmental purpose”.

• ● Improving the Scheme’s operation, for example by allowing the Scheme’s administrator, Reclaim Fund Ltd, to only accept transfers from participants who have undertaken appropriate efforts to trace, verify and reunite the asset with its rightful owner.

• ● Naming Reclaim Fund Ltd as the Scheme’s authorised reclaim fund.

119

Territorial extent and application

● The Bill will extend and apply to the whole of the UK, with the exception of the provision on the distribution of money in England, which will only apply to England.

Key facts

• ● Expansion of the scheme has the potential to make £880 million available across the UK as it recovers from COVID-19.

• ● Over the last decade, the Scheme has unlocked more than £745 million for social and environmental initiatives from dormant bank and building society accounts. This includes releasing £150 million to help charities, social enterprises, and individuals during the COVID-19 outbreak.

• ● The measure to align the English model for how dormant assets funding is allocated with that used in the devolved administrations includes a statutory duty to consult. Should the measure pass, the Government intends to launch a public consultation on the causes to which future funding can be distributed.