The government is pleased to respond today to the report it has received from the Accelerated Settlement Technical Group. The group, chaired by Andrew Douglas, was asked to recommend a detailed plan for the UK to move to faster settlement of securities trades – known as ‘T+1’. This follows the report in March 2024 from the Accelerated Settlement Taskforce, chaired by Charlie Geffen, which recommended that the UK should move to a T+1 standard settlement period by the end of 2027.

A T+1 standard would mean that in a typical securities trade, such as buying and selling shares, the buyer would receive the securities they have purchased, and the seller would receive payment, the day after the trade is agreed. This is faster than the current two-day standard. This could bring important benefits to UK financial markets including cost savings for investors, alignment with international markets and driving increased efficiency in ‘back office’ processes.

The report recommends 12 ‘critical’ and 26 ‘highly recommended’ actions to facilitate a successful transition to T+1. Many of these recommendations are for market participants and will be implemented through a new ‘T+1 code of conduct’. The key action for government is to bring forward secondary legislation to change the current T+2 requirement under the UK Central Securities Depositories Regulation to a T+1 requirement. The government accepts this recommendation and will introduce legislation making this change when Parliamentary time allows.

The report also recommends that T+1 should come into effect in the UK on Monday 11 October 2027. This would provide firms the time they need to prepare for the move, including making the necessary investment in their systems and processes, while preventing a lengthy period of misalignment with other key jurisdictions. As the report sets out, this date would also avoid periods in the corporate calendar when firms are likely to be focused on other events such as corporate dividends, enabling resources to be dedicated to the T+1 transition. The government also accepts this recommendation and will legislate for T+1 to be mandatory from this date forward. On this basis, firms should now begin preparations for 11 October 2027 to be the first day of trading under a T+1 standard.

As the report acknowledges, another important factor is the potential for alignment with other European jurisdictions. An aligned move to T+1 across Europe is a highly desirable outcome which would minimise costs for firms. The government is engaging with European partners to support this outcome and notes the growing consensus that 11 October 2027 is an appropriate implementation date.

Finally, the report recommends that the Accelerated Settlement Taskforce, in the final phase of its work, should oversee implementation of the recommendations until the transition to T+1 has been successfully delivered, and for a short period afterwards to assess the short-term impacts. The government agrees with this approach and has today published updated Terms of Reference on gov.uk that set out updated objectives and a governance structure for the next phase of the work. The government is pleased to confirm that Mr Douglas will continue to chair this next stage of the Taskforce. Relevant industry chairs from the EU and Switzerland will be invited to attend meetings as observers.

The government would like to thank Mr Douglas, and everyone who has contributed thus far, for their work on this important project