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The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre recently produced a report calling into question the quality and utility of the now ubiquitous social audit reporting (Social Audit Liability: Hard Law Strategies to Redress Weak Social Assurances) (the "Report").
The government has enacted new tax regulations for the LTAF, the UK's new authorised open-ended fund vehicle. It is designed to facilitate investment in long-term, illiquid assets and has been generating a lot of interest from our clients.
The European Commission has proposed changes to the AIFMD, UCITS Directive and the ELTIF regime in its long-awaited overhaul of the EU funds regimes.
On 3 October 2021, the UK Competition & Markets Authority ('CMA') published its recommendation to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as to whether the existing Vertical Agreements Block Exemption Regulation ('VABER'), both in force in the EU and retained from EU law following Brexit, should be renewed or varied in the UK. The retained VABER will expire on 31 May 2022 so, without a renewal or variation, an automatic exemption regime for vertical agreements would cease to apply in the UK.
As part of the government's review of the UK's fund regime, and its wider efforts to enhance the UK's attractiveness to asset managers and investment funds, a number of changes are to be made to the UK's REIT regime with effect from 1 April 2022. Further changes to the REIT rules are likely to follow further down the line as the review progresses.
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.
The Government has laid regulations to restrict individuals' statutory transfer rights in specified circumstances, with the aim of helping trustees to stop scam transfers.
The legislation has effect in relation to applications for DB transfer value statements of entitlement or DC transfer requests made on or after 30 November 2021. Trustees who make statutory transfers need to ensure that their transfer processes and communications are aligned with the legislation.
Key employment and business immigration developments for employers.
The UK's Corporate Justice Coalition ("CJC"), an organisation made up of various UK and international Civil Society Organisations ("CSOs") including Anti-Slavery International, Friends of the Earth and Business Human Rights Resource Centre has recently recommended the implementation of a potentially wide-reaching corporate "failure to prevent" regime targeting negative human rights and environmental impacts. Such a regime would track similar EU proposals relating to the diligence of 'value chains' for ESG failings and malpractice.
With climate change dominating the headlines, at the end of last week, the Government published its response to the March 2021 consultation on mandatory climate-related financial disclosures. The consultation set out proposals for certain publicly quoted companies, large private companies and LLPs to disclose climate-related financial information in line with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures ("TCFD recommendations"). The response summarises feedback the Government has received on its proposals and confirms that the changes will be implemented largely as set out in the consultation.
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.
A regular briefing for the alternative asset management industry.