Property (Digital Assets etc.) Bill undergoes further scrutiny in the Lords

The Property (Digital Assets etc.) Bill aims to establish that things can be property, even if they do not meet the traditional definitions of property established in case law. The bill is designed to clarify that assets such as crypto-tokens, crypto-currency and non-fungible tokens could be capable of attracting property rights. However, it does not establish that any particular category of thing is property.

Detailed scrutiny

Report stage is an extra chance for members to closely scrutinise elements of the bill and make changes.    

Proposed changes

Members speaking at report stage put forward amendments (changes) to the bill on subjects including: 

• recognising digital assets as property
• codes of practice on attributes of digital assets conferring property rights
• conducting a review of the impact of digital assets being treated as property by virtue of the Act.

Catch up

Watch or read the debate 

• Watch on Parliament TV. 
• Read the Lords Hansard transcript. 

Explore further information 

Find out more about the draft law in the House of Lords Library briefing.  

Next steps

What's happened so far? 

Committee stage 

A Special Public Bill Committee took place 3 February 2025. The bill was reported from the Special Public Bill Committee with an amendment.

Find out more about the Property (Digital Assets etc.) Bill Special Public Bill Committee.

Second reading 

Second reading - the general debate on all aspects of the bill - took place in Grand Committee on 6 November and then taken formally in the House of Lords chamber on 13 November 2024.  

Image: Pexels / Mikhail Nilov