HM Treasury has made the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 14) Regulations 2026, using the power in section 86(3) of the 2023 Act. The instrument was made on 3 June 2026 and brings specified provisions into force on 13 July 2026. According to the Regulations, the commencement is tightly drawn. It brings section 1(1) of the Act into force only so far as needed to revoke a defined group of short selling instruments listed in Schedule 1.
The central legal change is the revocation of Regulation (EU) No 236/2012, the EU Short Selling Regulation 2012, from the body of assimilated financial services law. The same commencement also activates the repeal of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Short Selling) Regulations 2012. In practical terms, this is another step in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 programme for removing inherited EU-derived financial services legislation from the UK statute book through staged commencement regulations.
The measure also reaches the technical rules sitting beneath the 2012 EU Regulation. Schedule 1, as commenced here, removes Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 826/2012 and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 827/2012, which dealt with notification content, public disclosure methods and related operational detail for net short positions. Alongside those measures, the Regulations revoke Commission Delegated Regulations (EU) No 918/2012 and No 919/2012. Those instruments covered definitions, the calculation of net short positions, notification thresholds, liquidity thresholds and the method for measuring falls in value for liquid shares and other financial instruments.
Two later domestic instruments are also included in the repeal package: the Short Selling (Notification Thresholds) Regulations 2021 and the Short Selling (Notification Threshold) Regulations 2023. Read together, the commencement removes both the main EU-derived short selling framework and the later UK measures that adjusted threshold settings within that framework. That point matters because the change is not limited to a single headline Regulation. The Treasury has brought the main legislation, the domestic implementing rules and the related technical instruments to the same commencement date.
For firms, advisers and compliance teams, the date to note is 13 July 2026. On the face of the instrument, the immediate effect is legal repeal rather than the creation of new duties within this statutory instrument itself. The operational task is therefore one of legal reference and document control. Internal manuals, policy papers and compliance materials that still cite the revoked short selling instruments may need to be checked against the position from 13 July, especially where they refer to notification thresholds, disclosure mechanics or older EU technical standards.
The Explanatory Note states that no full impact assessment has been produced for this instrument because no, or no significant, effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. It also notes that a full impact assessment was published for the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 as a whole. That wording places this commencement in the category of technical legislative housekeeping within a broader reform programme, rather than a stand-alone policy measure expected to impose a separate material burden.
The Regulations are signed by Taiwo Owatemi and Christian Wakeford as two of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury. The Explanatory Note also records that this is the 14th commencement instrument made under the 2023 Act, underlining the phased approach to implementation. In plain terms, the measure does one precise job. From 13 July 2026, a defined set of UK and EU-derived short selling instruments listed in Schedule 1 to FSMA 2023 is revoked, continuing the Treasury’s move away from the inherited legislative framework in financial services.