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Many businesses in the scope of the UK's Energy Saving Opportunities Scheme ("ESOS") will, having submitted their ESOS notification to the Environment Agency, now have put this reporting obligation to the back of their mind until phase 4 in around three years' time. However phase 3 of ESOS brought some important changes, one of which will keep ESOS on the agenda on an at-least-annual basis for the foreseeable future.
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.
The Court of Appeal has given its ruling in the Virgin Media case (see our alert). This concerned the validity of a rule amendment affecting benefits in a defined benefit contracted-out scheme which was made without obtaining the actuary's written confirmation that contracting-out requirements would still be met, as required by section 37 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993. Such confirmations were required for amendments made between 6 April 1997 and 5 April 2016. The Court of Appeal confirmed that confirmation was required for changes to future service benefits (as well as changes to past service benefits).
The Institutional Limited Partners Association ("ILPA") has relaunched its cross-industry Quarterly Reporting Standards Initiative ("QRSI") which aims to deliver the next evolution of ILPA quarterly reporting. The QRSI temporarily paused the comment period on its draft updated ILPA Reporting Template and a new draft Performance Template, which were released for comment in June this year, following the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruling to vacate the US SEC Private Fund Adviser rules ("PFAR") as the ruling shifted the rationale for the changes to the quarterly reporting standards from compliance with the SEC requirements and opened the door for an "adoption focused approach" built on industry practices with more flexibility and scope to take into account IFRS and other international standards.
The UK Subsidy Control Act 2022 (the "Act") came into force on 4 January 2023 in order to replace the European Union ("EU") state aid regime and satisfy the UK's obligations under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The Act sets out a framework for public bodies to comply with when awarding subsidies to businesses and provides a means for private challenge of the granting of any such awards.
The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) will be highly consequential for those large EU and non-EU companies that fall within its scope. Despite some misleading commentary to the contrary, the financial sector is in scope of the CS3D as finally agreed by the European legislators in May 2024.
In this session from the recent PMI's Annual Conference (July 2024), Partner and Head of Pensions Susie Daykin, Technology & Commercial Transactions Partner James Longster and The Pensions Ombudsman's Senior Counsel David Craddock with some insightful questions from the chair, Client Director of Vidett Limited, Mike Birch, explored the regulatory challenges and opportunities surrounding the integration of AI in the pension sector. They discussed some of the potential "use cases" in the pensions space and explored the regulatory, governance and other issues that trustees should be thinking about when AI is used.
Earlier this month, the EU's European Artificial Intelligence Act ("AI Act")[1], the world's first comprehensive regulation on artificial intelligence, came into force. The AI Act aims to ensure that AI systems are safe, transparent, traceable and environmentally friendly.
Partner Daniel Gerring and Consultant Charlotte Feld look at what is sometimes meant by "diversity of thought".
The EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive ("CSRD") was due to be implemented into national law by the Member States by 6 July 2024. The majority missed that deadline to finalise their laws.
Last week, the UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) published new draft merger control guidance for consultation, updated to reflect how the CMA's new powers under the UK Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act 2024 (DMCCA). The guidance confirms how the CMA can use the new incoming jurisdictional tests to cast a wide net and catch a broad range of deals. But the guidance also provides for greater procedural flexibility during the CMA's reviews – including specifically for private equity firms. See below for some initial takeaways, prior to the guidance being finalised.
Welcome to our latest investigations newsletter, bringing you up-to-speed on the latest trends and developments in this ever-evolving area.
Competition authorities across the globe have, like the vast majority of organisations, been investing significantly in building their understanding of AI and the potential competition and consumer law impacts of its development and use.
On 25 July 2024 the Institutional Limited Partners Association ("ILPA"), the trade body for institutional limited partners in the private equity industry, issued its much anticipated Guidance for Limited Partners and General Partners in respect of NAV-based facilities (the "Guidance").
As part of today's statement by the Chancellor on public spending pressures, the government has made several announcements relating to tax. These include measures relating to carried interest taxation and reform of the current tax regime for UK resident but non-domiciled individuals ("non-doms").
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.
Welcome to the first of our series on what is new and what to do next for listed companies, in which we intend to cover the key legal developments relevant to listed companies each quarter. If you would like to discuss any of these updates, please feel free to get in touch with any of the contacts listed at the end of this briefing.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the results of its multi-firm review on how firms treat politically exposed persons (PEPs) when carrying out anti-money laundering checks.