FCA opens consultation window on the new crypto-asset promotions gateway
The 12-week window opens on Monday. We summarise the three questions the FCA is asking and the responses already filed by the City.
DESNZ quietly redrafts the Hydrogen Production Business Model — and the cost ceiling moves before the consultation closes.
A late-stage draft circulated to four developers on Tuesday halves the strike-price indexation window for new HAR schemes. We map the implications for the seven projects still in the allocation round, and what the BEIS Select Committee's private session on Wednesday likely signals for the autumn review.
Crown Commercial Service issues prior information notice for £1.4bn digital outcomes framework
Twelve suppliers have been named on the engagement list. We list them, alongside the three who were excluded and why.
Phase 2 opens in the Microsoft–Inflection review; remedies timetable slips by six weeks
The Group of Independent Experts has been confirmed. We note the two names with prior cloud-infrastructure cases.
Editor's note
What the archive contains, and how to navigate it.
The Undercurrent Briefing has published every weekday morning at 07:00 BST since March 2017. The archive is the full run of those daily editions, alongside the five weekly sector digests (Energy Markets on Monday, Financial Services on Tuesday, Digital & Competition on Wednesday, Public Spending on Thursday, Regulation & Risk on Friday) and the monthly Regulatory Stress Map, which lists every open statutory instrument, consultation and CMA case under active editorial coverage.
Subscribers search the archive by sector tag, by named official or department, by statutory instrument reference, or by the underlying primary document. Every story in the archive links back to the source — the consultation response, the procurement notice, the second-reading speech, the regulatory letter — so the reading is verifiable, not second-hand.
The archive is not a marketing repository of selected highlights. It is the working record of the editorial team's coverage, kept intact.
Archive by month
The last twelve issues, newest first.
Each month groups the daily briefings published in that period, with the dominant sector tags and the lead-issue headline. Click through to open any single morning's edition.
January 2026
12 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
DESNZ's late-stage Hydrogen Production Business Model redraft, the FCA's crypto-asset promotions gateway, and the CMA's opening of the Microsoft–Inflection Phase 2 review.
- The cost ceiling moves before the consultation closes — DESNZ's HAR redraft
- FCA opens 12-week window on crypto-asset promotions
- CCS prior information notice on £1.4bn digital outcomes framework
- CMA Phase 2 timetable slips in the Microsoft–Inflection review
December 2025
16 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
Pre-Budget Treasury leaks on departmental spending control; HS2 Phase 2a cancellation; DfT's revised procurement pipeline.
November 2025
17 briefings · 5 sector digests · 1 stress map
PRA's secondary-competence review; Ofgem's RIIO-3 open letter; NHSE's revised capital guidance.
October 2025
17 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
AI Safety Institute funding settlement; CMA's mobile-browsing remedies decision; Cabinet Office's redrafted procurement green paper.
September 2025
18 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
NSIP reform regulations laid before Parliament; FCA's Dear-CEO letter on dual-regulated firms; MoD's procurement reset.
August 2025
13 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
DHSC's medicines-pricing voluntary scheme negotiations; ICO's AI auditing guidance; DfT's rail-reform command paper.
July 2025
17 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
CMA's housebuilding market study update; BEIS Select Committee's net-zero inquiry; HM Treasury's pensions review interim.
June 2025
16 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
FCA's consumer-duty supervisory review; DSIT's semiconductor strategy; Cabinet Office's social-value weighting revision.
May 2025
15 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
Ofgem's RIIO-2 mid-period review; NHSE's ICS restructuring guidance; DfT's franchising consultation.
April 2025
17 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
Spring Statement fiscal implications for departmental budgets; PRA's ring-fencing review response; CMA's audit-market remedies.
March 2025
16 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
DSIT's cyber-resilience regime secondary legislation; DESNZ's clean-industry bonus allocations; DHSC's life-sciences vision refresh.
February 2025
14 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
Procurement Act transition timetable; FCA's PISCES work; Cabinet Office's supply-chain review.
January 2025
16 briefings · 4 sector digests · 1 stress map
Year opens with NSIP transitional arrangements, DfT's rail-reform consultation and DSIT's data-bill second reading.
Browse by sector
Eight standing coverage areas, maintained since launch.
Each sector is staffed by at least one sector editor and tracked through its own dedicated tag in the archive. The list below has been stable since 2018.
The weekly digests
Five sector digests, landing Monday through Friday.
Each digest is published at 07:00 BST on its assigned day and sits alongside the daily briefing. Subscribers receive the digest relevant to their sector tag; full institutional seats receive all five.
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01 Monday Energy Markets Digest
Tracks DESNZ consultations, Ofgem open letters, NSIP applications, the EMR allocation round, the Capacity Market, and the wholesale-gas and power market windows that matter for policy drafting. Lead story in the 13 January edition: how the Electricity Market Reform review is likely to handle the hydrogen levy shortfall in Q2.
Open the Energy Markets Digest index -
02 Tuesday Financial Services Digest
Covers the FCA, PRA and HM Treasury. Includes Dear-CEO letters, consultation papers, supervisory notices and the secondary-competence review. Lead story in the 14 January edition: the FCA's private engagement with six retail-broker chief executives on the consumer-duty implementation review.
Open the Financial Services Digest index -
03 Wednesday Digital & Competition Digest
Joins DSIT, Ofcom, the ICO and the CMA. Tracks online-safety secondary legislation, AI Bill committee stages, data-bill Lords amendments, and live CMA cases through Phase 2. Lead story in the 15 January edition: the timetable slip on the Microsoft–Inflection remedies phase and what the Group of Independent Experts' composition signals.
Open the Digital & Competition Digest index -
04 Thursday Public Spending Digest
Tracks HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office and departmental finance directors. Includes Estimates Day coverage, Public Accounts Committee follow-ups, and the procurement pipeline. Lead story in the 9 January edition: the twelve suppliers on the CCS engagement list for the £1.4bn digital outcomes framework, with their past performance against the predecessor framework.
Open the Public Spending Digest index -
05 Friday Regulation & Risk Digest
A weekly read-across: which consultations closed that week, which statutory instruments were laid, which CMA cases had procedural steps, and which sector regulators published open letters or supervisory statements. Designed for chief compliance officers and heads of regulatory affairs. Lead entry in the 10 January edition: a forward-look at the consultations expected to close in the week of 19 January.
Open the Regulation & Risk Digest index
From the editor
Tomorrow's briefing lands at 07:00.
The Undercurrent UK 14-day trial gives full access to today's archive, the five weekly digests, the monthly Regulatory Stress Map, and tomorrow's edition at 07:00 BST. No credit card. Cancel any time before the trial closes.