The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has delivered his second Budget. The exceptional circumstances of the past year have forced the Chancellor to tread a fine line between revenue raising and continuing to support struggling businesses, individuals, and the fragile economic recovery. The main fiscal measure of note was the announcement of a 6% … Read more

ICSA: The Chartered Governance Institute (ICSA) has published guidance for companies in connection with the 2021 AGM season. The guidance discusses a number of legal and practical issues in relation to holding AGMs in 2021, including: Planning a meeting – The guidance states that companies should plan to hold shareholder meetings based on the restrictions … Read more

The UK Supreme Court handed down its judgment in a high profile jurisdictional challenge relating to group claims brought against Royal Dutch Shell Plc and its Nigerian subsidiary in connection with alleged pollution in the Niger Delta. The claimants (some 42,500 individuals from the Niger Delta region) brought proceedings in the English courts against Royal … Read more

The GC100, the association of general counsel and company secretaries of FTSE 100 companies, has published a discussion paper on shareholder meetings, titled “Shareholder Meetings – Time for Change?”. The paper reviews the current format of annual general meetings (AGMs). It notes the typically low attendance and participation rates at physical meetings and that very … Read more

This Covid-19 update briefing contains a summary of changes in corporate law and regulation made in the course of last year in connection with Covid-19. Please click here to see the briefing. Read more

We have published our half-yearly update briefing which summarises the major developments in UK corporate law and regulation that have occurred over the last six months, that is from July to December 2020, and which are of relevance to UK listed companies. The briefing is available here. Read more

The UK ceased to be a Member State of the European Union on 31 January 2020. A transition period then applied until 31 December 2020. During the transition period, EU law continued to apply in and to the UK, and the UK continued to trade as part of the Single Market. The Brexit transition period ended … Read more

BEIS has published three consultation papers setting out proposed reforms in relation to increasing the powers of Companies House, improving the financial information which is filed with Companies House and implementing a ban on corporate directors. These consultations follow the Government’s consultation on options to enhance the role of Companies House and increase the transparency of UK corporate entities in 2019 … Read more