Law Commission Digital Assets Report: Government Response

My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede) has today made the following statement:

I am pleased to inform the House that we are taking forward the Property (Digital Assets etc.) Bill via the Law Commission’s special procedure. This recommendation was made in the “Digital Assets: Final Report” published by the Law Commission in June 2023. The Bill will confirm in statute the common law position that certain digital assets can constitute property.

Providing certainty over legal issues around digital assets will encourage the use of English and Welsh law in internationally mobile transactions. The Ministry of Justice commissioned the digital assets report in 2020 to identify any barriers to the recognition of digital assets as property under English and Welsh private law and to recommend reforms in this area of law. This work is vital to our ambition to maintain English and Welsh law as a global law of choice.

I also accept the second recommendation by the Law Commission to set up an expert group on control of digital assets. The Ministry of Justice has asked the UK Jurisdiction Taskforce, an expert group chaired by the Master of the Rolls that produces non-binding guidance on areas of legal uncertainty, to take forward this work as a body that already has an internationally credible voice in the intersection of the law and technology. I believe the UKJT is uniquely placed to convene the expertise needed to consider the issues around control of digital assets.

Finally, the report made recommendations to make statutory amendments to the Financial Collateral Arrangements Regulations and to set up a multidisciplinary project to formulate a statutory framework for the entering into, operation and enforcement of certain crypto-token and crypto-asset collateral arrangements. I understand that my colleagues in HM Treasury are reviewing these recommendations and will provide an update in due course.

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