<p>Filter Knowledge</p>

In this briefing, partner Russell Warren and associates Aimee Hutchinson and Laura Jackson discuss the way in which the tax system can help combat climate change. 

The UK is due to introduce a new digital services tax (DST) with effect from 1 April 2020. When announced in the Autumn 2018 Budget, DST was described as an interim action, pending global reform.

After a tumultuous 2019, it's a new year, a new decade and a new UK Government pledged to "get Brexit done". The UK Parliamentary paralysis that characterised so much of the UK's approach to Brexit last year is over.

This document was first published in July 2018 and updated in January 2020.

Our annual briefing highlighting the key 2019 legal developments which impact the funds' industry and previews what can be expected in 2020.

Our regular round-up of recent developments and topics for your radar, and news of planned training and networking events for in-house counsel in 2020.

The process of applying for planning consent increasingly requires ever more detailed statements and assessments before an application is determined. This often involves onerous commitments by developers in order to satisfy pre-commencement conditions.

Many organisations are failing to publish information on their payment practices, which could lead to being barred from government contracts or even the spectre of regulatory enforcement.

There is an emerging trend towards post-completion or post-occupation reviews of the efficacy of planning obligations which result in clawbacks or uplifts in financial contributions or mitigation works, sometimes for a number of years post-completion. This leaves frayed edges to completion-driven real estate transactions and can leave tenants potentially exposed to unknown or unquantified additions to service charges.

As you know, the new UK Corporate Governance Code (the 'Code') took effect for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2019. Many companies with a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange will now be in an accounting period to which the new Code applies and will need to ensure they can operate their executive incentive arrangements in compliance with the following provisions:

To ensure that the UK has a functioning statute book after Brexit, many thousands of changes are being made by statutory instrument, with limited scrutiny from Parliament. 

New rules implementing the Shareholder Rights Directive II ("SRD II") have come into force today. There are two key areas of change that are relevant to listed companies:

The new Regulation on prudential requirements for MiFID investment firms (IFR) and the accompanying Directive (IFD) have now been passed by the European Parliament and, subject to adoption by the European Council (which is expected shortly), will become law.

Is the UK's anti-bribery regime about to be put back in the spotlight? A House of Lords Select Committee has published its long-awaited report on the UK Bribery Act 2010.

If the UK departs the EU on 29 March 2019 without an agreement in place, manufacturers and importers of industrial and consumer goods selling into the UK and/or EU will face a range of compliance and market access challenges. With fewer than five weeks remaining, 'no-deal' contingency plans should be implemented.

"In this briefing we summarise some of those key known knowns and known unknowns which should be the focus of attention for firms in the coming year and beyond. As for the unknown unknowns, who knows?