<p>Filter Knowledge</p>

This briefing was first published in July 2021 and updated in November 2021. 

Our Autumn Budget website, put together by our colleagues in the Tax team, is live. You can view it here: Autumn Budget 2021 | Travers Smith.

On 22 October 2021, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published their final report and draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) regarding the content and presentation of taxonomy related disclosures as required by the Taxonomy Regulation and the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

The Chancellor delivered his Autumn Budget on 27 October 2021.

On 18 October 2021, with just under two weeks to go before the UK hosts COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference 2021 in Glasgow, HM Treasury, the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published a joint paper entitled Greening Finance: A Roadmap to Sustainable Investing (the Roadmap).

The last few months have seen several significant developments in relation to tax. Whilst perhaps the most headlines were generated by the OECD’s announcement that agreement has been reached on the introduction of important changes to global corporate tax rules, there have been several noteworthy developments from a domestic tax perspective, including the provision by the UK government of more details of the new tax on residential property developers and the new tax privileged regime for asset holding companies, both of which are due to come into force next April.

We have now passed the end of the third quarter of 2021, the date set by the Sterling RFR Working Group for the completion of the active transition of financial contracts away from LIBOR. Our briefing in June outlined the roadmap to transition and the progress being made in the cash and derivatives markets.

On 8 October 2021 the OECD updated its statement setting out the framework for international tax reform. The two-pillar plan will require the UK and other OECD members to make major changes to their domestic tax law over the next couple of years.

Tax has been very much in the headlines recently. At a domestic level, we even have two new taxes to look forward to next year (being the health and social care levy (see our briefing) and residential property developer tax (RPDT)), whilst, at international level, agreement has been reached on most of the key features of significant two-pillar reform programme for global corporate tax rules (BEPS 2.0) (see our briefing). 

A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry. 

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) recently launched a consultation on reform of UK data protection laws, with the twin objectives of strengthening public trust in the use of data, and helping to drive economic growth and innovation. The consultation builds on the Government's National Data Strategy, published last year which set out plans to build a world leading data economy that works for everyone. 'Unlocking the power of data' is also one of the Government's top 10 tech priorities, and the Government's recently published National AI Strategy also highlights the importance of this consultation and the role of data protection in wider AI governance.  

Our regular round-up of recent and forthcoming developments in law and practice for in-house counsel.

2021 has seen the UK Government and regulators engage in a blizzard of consultations and draft legislation, proposing reforms across a wide range of areas. The sheer volume makes it difficult for businesses to keep on top of changes that might affect them.

On 7 September, the UK Government announced the introduction of a new 1.25% levy which is intended to pay for adult social care reforms and enable the country's National Health Service to tackle the COVID-19 backlog. In this briefing we consider the implications this might have for overseas employers.

The ICO has launched a consultation on its international data transfer agreement (IDTA). This is the agreement that would be used as a safeguarding mechanism for restricted transfers of data covered by the UK GDPR.

As part of a raft of proposals to overhaul the current competition and consumer law regimes, the UK Government has set out for consultation a number of wide-ranging proposals concerning competition law enforcement in the UK. Competition Act enforcement is the focus of this briefing. 

The UK Government has launched a wide-ranging consultation proposing far reaching reforms to the competition and consumer law enforcement regimes.

The UK Government published its long-awaited draft Online Safety Bill in May 2021. The Bill creates a new legal framework for identifying and removing illegal and harmful content from the internet. The aim is to prevent harm to individuals in the UK. Those covered will face fines and other sanctions for non-compliance.

The UK Government is consulting on plans to reform consumer law, including giving regulators powers to impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover for breach of consumer legislation. If implemented, these changes are likely to result in a significantly tougher regulatory environment for consumer-facing businesses.