In this issue:
The Ministry of Justice has published revised guidance for lawyers and legal services to help stakeholders prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal in place. See: .
International trade
The Department for International Trade has published a series of high-level summaries providing information about contingency trade agreements being put in place to replicate or ‘rollover’ various trade arrangements that the UK currently participates in by virtue of EU membership. See: .
Structuring your business
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published new guidance on the subject of how cross-border business operations and European specific corporate entities would be affected if there's a no-deal Brexit. See: .
Consumer rights
The BEIS has published new guidance on the subject of consumer rights and business to help stakeholders prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal in place. See: .
Anti-money laundering
John Binns, partner in the business crime and corporate regulatory department of BCL Solicitors LLP and member of the Corporate Crime Consulting Editorial Board, considers the potential impact of Brexit on the UK’s anti-money laundering laws. See News Analysis:
Geo-blocking
The BEIS has published new guidance on geo-blocking of online content after Brexit to help stakeholders prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal in place. See: .
Banking, insurance & other financial services
HM Treasury has published three guidance notes containing information about financial services such as banking and insurance for UK residents, businesses based in the UK, EEA residents, and financial services institutions. See: .
Workplace rights & pension benefits
The BEIS and the Department for Work & Pensions have published new and updated guidance on the subjects of and pension benefits to help stakeholders prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal in place. See: .
Public procurement
The Cabinet Office has reissued its guidance on public procurement to help stakeholders prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal in place. See: .
International road haulage
The Department for Transport, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Traffic Commissioners for Great Britain and Driver and Vehicles Standards Agency have published revised guidance on international road haulage to help stakeholders prepare for the UK leaving the EU without a deal in place. See: .
EU free trade agreements
The chair of the House of Commons International Trade Committee, Angus Brendan MacNeil, has written a letter to the Secretary of State for International Trade urging the government to promptly address gaps in the information provided to Parliament on the ‘roll-over’ of EU free trade agreements following Brexit. Mr MacNeil asks how the actual tariffs that will be imposed will impact trade, as the government has so far only outlined the impact of maximum tariffs. See: .
For more information on keeping up to date on Brexit, including details of Brexit news updates, analysis and highlights, see Q&A:
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) has announced that it has ‘substantially increased the scope and ambition’ of its international engagement. The OFSI has also confirmed that it will be extending its initiative to include not just bilateral and multilateral meetings, but to provide technical assistance to other governments. See: .
From the acquittal of former Barclays boss John Varley to the conclusion of the Serious Fraud Office’s long-running benchmark-rigging prosecutions, the first half of 2019 has been packed with corporate crime verdicts. As lawyers head off on their summer recess, here are the big jury decisions you need to know about. See News Analysis: .
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order imposing sweeping sanctions on the Venezuelan Government. The order imposes blocks or freezes on all property and interests in property of the Government of Venezuela that are in the US, come within the US, and/or come within the possession or control of any US person. It also blocks any transactions in respect of the same. See: .
Cybersecurity & cybercrime
The Association of British Insurers have repeated their call for the Information Commissioner’s Office to publish information on cyberattacks so that the industry can price its policies accurately for the burgeoning market. See News Analysis: .
Data protection
The International Organization for Standardization has released the world’s first International Standard on the subject of privacy information management (ISO/IEC 27701). The standard has been designed ‘to help organisations manage privacy information and meet regulatory requirements’. See: .
Rachelle Sellek, partner at Acuity Law, considers whether it is time for English and Welsh law to go their separate ways. See News Analysis:
The High Court has ruled in Odyssey Aviation Ltd v GFG 737 Ltd that a contract negotiated between two sophisticated commercial parties could still provide for an implied term as to requests for delivery of documents to comply with conditions precedent to completion. See News Analysis:
The objective of the draft guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, developed by the EU’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, was to set European standards for ‘Trustworthy AI’, meaning AI which is lawful, ethical, technically robust and reliable. Following extensive feedback from more than 500 contributors a revised version of the guidelines was published in late June. Karen Fountain considers the developments made to the guidelines in light of the feedback exercise, focusing on the core components of Trustworthy AI and the core ethical principles. See News Analysis: EU Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence Guidelines and Assessment List published.
Balancing confidentiality and public interest are at the centre of Saab and another v Dangate Consulting Ltd and others , , which arose out of an anti-money laundering case that originated in Cyprus. David Allen QC, of 7 King’s Bench Walk, discusses the case. See News Analysis: .
Grahame Anderson, barrister at Littleton Chambers, examines the Court of Appeal’s decision in Okedina v Chikale that the civil and criminal penalties which could be imposed on an employer under, respectively, and of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 () for employing foreign nationals who lacked the requisite immigration status did not entail that their employment contracts were unenforceable and that they were precluded from pursuing contractual claims before an employment tribunal. See News Analysis: and Case Digest: .
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