Laura Cox, PwC partner, said:

"While we welcome the Government's efforts to progress this critical legislation, we had hoped to see some of the very constructive suggestions put forward by the Joint Committee of Parliament’s December report incorporated in the Bill. In particular, the Bill misses an opportunity to substantially improve the governance and public accountability of the Bank of England. For example, the Joint Committee’s suggestion to replace the Court of Directors with a Supervisory Board, made up of a more diverse pool of financial services expertise, would be more appropriate to the Bank's expanded sphere of responsibility for financial stability and market infrastructure.

“The draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Treasury and the Bank on crisis resolution leaves many questions unanswered, including who is really in charge in a crisis. The MoU fails to really tackle the crucial issue of what situations constitute a ‘material risk’ that public funds will need to be used.

“Disappointingly, there is not much recognition that the new Financial Conduct Authority may have a significant role to play in some crisis situations, and how it will interact with Treasury and the Bank is left out of the MoU entirely. It is not yet clear whether this approach will enable bank regulators to take better coordinated actions when the next financial crisis hits us."