Dematerialisation Market Action Taskforce
The Dematerialisation Market Action Taskforce (DEMAT), chaired by Mark Austin CBE, has been set up to take forward reforms to the UK’s shareholding framework
Documents
Details
July 2026
On 14 July 2026, the Dematerialisation Market Action Taskforce (DEMAT) published its implementation plan for removing paper share certificates from the UK shareholding framework. This was a key objective in the Taskforce’s Terms of Reference, published in October 2025.
The plan recommends that paper share certificates should no longer be recognised as evidence of share ownership and should be replaced by entries on digital share registers. The report sets out a roadmap of legislative actions for the government to take, and what industry must do alongside this to make this work in practice. It confirms that shareholders do not need to do anything in preparation for the new system and their rights will be unaffected.
The government has accepted the recommendations and will legislate to remove paper shares and mandate digital registers before the end of 2027. The specific date will be confirmed in due course.
This plan marks the first stage in a phased programme to digitise share ownership in the UK. This first step is intended as a temporary phase before further reforms are implemented to make it easier for shareholders to exercise their rights through intermediaries (such as brokers and investment platforms), and ultimately move to a more efficient system where everyone will hold shares through such intermediaries. This approach is in line with the recommendations of the Digitisation Taskforce, which the government accepted in July 2025.
October 2025
On 15 July 2025 the Digitisation Taskforce published its final report, which recommended a staged approach to removing paper share certificates and ultimately moving to a fully intermediated system of shareholding in the UK. The government accepted the recommendations made in the report and set out in its response how it intends to take these forward.
One of the recommendations was to establish a ‘Technical Group’ to work with industry stakeholders to deliver parts of the final report. The government has therefore appointed Mark Austin CBE to establish and chair the Dematerialisation Market Action Taskforce (DEMAT) which will take forward this work. Mark is a corporate partner at Latham & Watkins, specialising in capital markets, and is a member of the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce.
The government has published Terms of Reference which set out the objectives for the DEMAT and its governance structure.
Updates to this page
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Details updated for July 2026, Dematerialisation Market Action Taskforce Report and Government response to DEMAT Implementation Plan added.
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First published.