Britain is poised to shelve plans to provide statutory powers to a new technology regulator, in a blow to global efforts to curb the dominance of internet companies, including Google and Facebook, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

The UK government’s new legislative programme is not expected to include a bill to provide statutory underpinning to the digital markets unit that is based within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the FT said, citing people briefed on the situation, according to a Reuters report.

The government said it needed to respond to a consultation concluded last October on its new competition regime for digital markets, and it could not comment on timelines for any future legislation.

“Our pro-competition regime will change the conduct of the most powerful tech firms and protect the businesses and consumers who rely on them right across the economy,” a spokesperson for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said.

The FT said Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deputy chief of staff David Canzini had told colleagues to scale back demands for new legislation. It quoted one unnamed official as saying: “He’s told us that Conservative governments don’t legislate their way to prosperity and growth.”

The digital markets unit was announced in 2020 to bolster Britain’s competition regime to prevent Google and Facebook from using their dominance to push out smaller firms and disadvantage consumers.

It started work a year ago, and was tasked initially with seeing if a code of conduct could improve the balance of power between tech platforms and news publishers.

The CMA, however, wanted it to be underpinned by a legally binding code of conduct, with penalties including fines of up to 10 percent of turnover, as well as enhanced merger rules.

The CMA declined to comment on the timing of any legislation on Tuesday.

The British government’s legislative programme for the coming year, due to be outlined in the Queen’s Speech on May 10, is not expected to include a bill that would provide the unit with statutory powers, Reuters quoted FT as stating.