Updates

New and updated Government guidance on Brexit

  • Legal

The Government continues to update guidance on how to do business from 1st January 2021 in the UK. This article highlights some of the new and updated guidance documents that relate to environmental management.

It’s expected that the transition period of the UK leaving the EU will end on 31st December 2020, a date that is fast approaching. This means that from 1st January 2021, the way the UK does business will change, and the UK Government has ramped up its production of guidance to help businesses to understand and prepare for these changes.

It’s important to note that although guidance should always be reviewed and considered, it is changes to legislation that will be what is legally binding, rather than what is set out in any guidance documents. There is currently lots of draft legislation sat waiting to be published by the Government and this is likely to support the changes detailed within the updated guidance.

As always, we will continue to keep you up to date with any changes to legislation when they are published via the monthly updates in your legal register.

New environmental guidance

There are some key areas of environmental law that will change as a result of Brexit; the published guidance helps you to understand what will change as well as what won’t.

Most changes to duties will relate to import or export of items from the UK. For most businesses, the changes will be to the process of how duties are met, rather than the duty itself.

It’s important that you consider if your business will be affected and if you will need to follow any new or different processes from 1st January 2021.

Below are links to some key guidance documents that have been recently published or updated. This is not an extensive list; therefore, you should still follow the Government’s recommendation to complete the Brexit questionnaire for a list of changes tailored to your business: