This blog provides a brief overview of December’s Legal Updates, which are relevant to Quality, Environmental, Info Sec and Health & Safety to help your organisation stay aligned with the latest legal requirements.
How to use this Update:
- You should review these updates and decide whether they are applicable to your company.
- Add all relevant items to your legal resister and document your compliance.
- Ensure all policy and procedures align with the new governance and compliance requirements.
- Provide information and training to all relevant to ensure you remain compliant
- Please note ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001 and other standards require you to conduct a compliance evaluation.
Need assistance with these updates? We are here to help: Contact us
Business
1st December
UK
The Corporation Tax Act 2010 (Part 8C) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
The legislation will clarify that awards of simple interest by the Courts against HMRC
which are awarded at a rate no more than a statutory rate of interest under the Taxes
Acts are outside the scope of Part 8C of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 (“Part 8C”).
This means that these awards will not be subject to Corporation Tax of 45%, but will,
instead, continue to be subject to the normal rate of Corporation Tax.
Link to legislation
Transport
2nd December
UK
Pending until April 2026
The Van Benefit and Car and Van Fuel Benefit Order 2025
Where an employer either provides fuel which is used for private mileage in a company car or van or provides a van which is used for private mileage, such benefits are taxable. The amount on which tax is charged is updated by legislation, and the purpose of this instrument is to increase charges in line with inflation as outlined in section 6 below which will have effect from 6 April 2026.
Link to legislation
Environment
4th December
Wales
The Carbon Accounting (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
These Regulations amend the Carbon Accounting (Wales) Regulations 2018 (“the principal Regulations”). The principal Regulations make provision in respect of carbon units for the purposes of calculating the net Welsh emissions account under Part 2 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 (“the Act”).
Link to legislation
Environment
4th December
Wales
The Climate Change (Net Welsh Emissions Account Credit Limit) (Wales) Regulations 2025
These Regulations set a limit on the amount of carbon units that may be credited to the net Welsh emissions account, in accordance with section 33(4) of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 (“the Act”).
Link to legislation
Environment
4th December
Wales
The Climate Change (Carbon Budget) (Wales) Regulations 2025
The purpose of Part 2 of the Environment (Wales) Act 2016 (“the Act”) is to require the Welsh Ministers to meet targets for reducing net Welsh emissions of greenhouse gases from Wales. Section 29 of the Act places a duty upon the Welsh Ministers to ensure that net Welsh emissions for the year 2050 are at least 100% lower than the baseline emissions figures.
Link to legislation
Finance
10th December
UK
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 10 and Saving Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
These Regulations amend the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 10 and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025/873 (C. 38)) (“the Tenth Commencement Regulations”).
Link to legislation
Information Security
17th December
UK
The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (Consequential and Other Amendments) Regulations 2025
This instrument makes amendments to legislation in consequence of changes made by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (“DUA Act”) to data protection legislation in relation to the use of personal data for research and related purposes and the creation of a new offence. The instrument also makes that new offence recordable and changes the legislation in which recordable offences are listed to add data protection offences
(a change that is being implemented for clarity of the statute book).
Link to legislation
Business
18th December
UK
The Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) (No. 2) Regulations 2025
The Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign
Powers) (No. 2) Regulations 2025 (“the Regulations”) introduce changes to Part 1A
of Schedule 6B to the Enterprise Act 2002 (“the 2002 Act”), to amend exceptions
within the merger control regime in that Act which prohibits foreign state newspaper
merger situations (the “Foreign State Influence (FSI) regime”).
Link to legislation
Business
18th December
UK
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) (ESG Ratings) Order 2025
This legislation brings the provision of an Environmental, Social, or Governance (ESG) rating into regulation under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 (S.I. 2001/544) (RAO), by making it a specified kind of activity, when that rating is likely to influence a decision to make an investment specified in Part 3 of the RAO (referred to in this memorandum as “making a specified investment”). This will require providers of an ESG rating to be authorised and supervised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Link to legislation
Business
19th December
UK
Employment Rights Act 2025
Zero hours workers etc.
Link to legislation
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/36/contents/enacted
Information Security
22nd December
UK
The Online Safety Act 2023 (Priority Offences) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
This instrument amends the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA). The OSA gives certain
internet services duties to protect their users from illegal content and activity online. Within these duties, regulated user-to-user and search service providers have
additional obligations for ‘priority offences.’ Section 3 of the OSA defines a ‘user-to-
user service’ as an internet service by means of which content that is generated
directly on the service by a user of the service, or uploaded to or shared on the service by a user of the service, may be encountered by another user, or other users, of the service. It defines a ‘search service’ as an internet service that is, or includes, a search engine.
Link to legislation
Environment
23rd December
UK
The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Packaging Waste) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
These Regulations amend The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and
Packaging Waste) Regulations 2024 (“the pEPR Regulations”). The pEPR
Regulations impose an obligation on businesses which supply packaging or packaged goods (referred to as producers) to pay the costs of dealing with household packaging waste and of the provision of public information about the disposal of packaging waste. In doing so, they shift the costs of managing household packaging waste from taxpayers and local authorities to those businesses who use and supply the packaging (applying the ‘polluter pays’ principle). They also place obligations on producers to ensure that a proportion of the packaging they supply by material type (card, glass, plastic, metal, etc) is recycled and to provide evidence of recycling to the regulator.
Link to legislation
ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001 and other standards require you to conduct a compliance evaluation. If you haven’t done this, we can help.
Legal Register
Assent Risk Management has made over 250 UK Legal Register entries available to search on Resilify.io’s Legal Register Database.
Need Support?
If you have questions or need guidance to navigate these updates, our team is here to help.
