On 20 June 2022, HM Treasury issued much-anticipated details on the forthcoming UK buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) regulatory regime. The Treasury’s approach to regulatory controls for agreements is essentially the same position that it took in its October 2021 consultation – a proportionate approach applying some but not all of the consumer credit regulatory principles, with regulations tailored to apply to BNPL as a bespoke product.
On 15 June 2022 HM Treasury published the outcome to its consultation on amendments to the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLRs). The changes to the MLRs will be implemented through the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2022 Statutory Instrument. A draft of the Statutory Instrument and explanatory memorandum have also been published. The amendments bring the MLRs in line with updated FATF standards and fill gaps in the current operation of the UK’s AML regime, most significantly in relation to cryptoassets.
In November 2018, the law surrounding the prescription of medical cannabis was changed by the British Home Office. Promising developments occurred in the year after this, including the approval of a cannabis based drug for childhood epilepsy and the opening of London’s first medical cannabis clinic with 150 patients on a waiting list. Nevertheless, almost four years on from the relaxation of barriers to access, it appears that minimal tangible progress has been made, particularly as it pertains to patient access which was the key motivation triggering government officials such as Home Secretary Sajid Javid to change the law in 2018.
The government has announced that it is proposing to make changes to trade union law that will remove the current prohibition on businesses using temporary workers to cover staff taking part in industrial action. It has also announced that it plans to quadruple the maximum amount of damages that a court can award against a trade union for unlawful strike action from GBP 250,000 to GBP 1 million. These changes will need to be approved by Parliament.
Medical device companies anticipating new rules post-Brexit may be feeling somewhat overlooked to hear the BEIS’s recent announcement regarding UKCA marking. From this announcement, it transpired that the UKCA marking announcement did not include medical devices and in-vitro medical devices.
The MHRA has been accepted as a full member of three groups: the International Medical Device Regulatory Forum (IMDRF), the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) and the US-based Medical Devices Innovation Consortium. These partnerships bolster the MHRA’s position as an influential international player in medicinal and medical device regulation and restore the MHRA’s ties with the IMDRF and ICH.
Environmental sustainability, social justice and proactive corporate governance will increasingly underpin the ESG agenda in the real estate sector for investors, occupiers and stakeholders alike. Buildings are responsible for almost 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, meaning our industry clearly has work to do if the UK is to achieve net-zero by 2050. The terms “net-zero” and “greenwashing” do not sit well together, and if the former is to win out, the UK will need an ambitious regulatory framework, coupled with unwavering buy-in from the boardroom to the living room. “Action, not aspiration” is the UK government’s message.
In a briefing published by Regulatory Intelligence, Annabel Mackay and Samantha Pickett explain the importance of cultivating an ethical culture from a financial regulatory, employment law and employee engagement perspective, and suggest how leaders can use communication strategies to do so.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal had upheld a decision of the employment tribunal that two companies within the same group had made unlawful inducements relating to collective bargaining under section 145B of the Trade Unions and Labour Relations (“Consolidation”) Act when it made direct offers of pay to its employees after it reached an impasse in negotiations with the recognised trade union. Although the tribunal’s decision pre-dated the Supreme Court’s decision in Kostal v. Dunkley, its findings were “presciently, so close in language to the test enunciated by the Supreme Court” that its conclusion was entirely consistent with the correct legal test as set out in Kostal.
Mirroring earlier proposals by the European Commission, in a move anticipated by the industry, HM Treasury has confirmed that it will implement a regime whereby third-party firms designated as “critical” will be subject to direct regulatory oversight by the financial regulators. The Treasury published a policy statement on 8 June 2022, setting out its framework for mitigating the risks caused by financial services firms outsourcing important functions to third-party service providers.