This blog provides a brief overview of February’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 apply to your company.
- Add all relevant items to your legal register and document your compliance.
- Ensure all policies and procedures align with the new governance and compliance requirements.
- Provide information and training to all relevant personnel to ensure you remain compliant
- Please note that 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
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ISO 9001: Now and into the Future
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Legal Briefing
Finance
2nd February
UK
Pending April 2026
The Pension Protection Fund and Occupational Pension Schemes (Levy Ceiling) Order 2026
The Pension Protection Fund pays compensation to eligible defined benefit pension scheme members whose employer has become insolvent and whose scheme cannot secure its liabilities at least at the compensation levels paid by the Pension Protection Fund. It is funded partly by a levy collected from eligible pension schemes. This Order increases the levy ceiling with the maximum amount of pension protection levy (“levy”) that the Board of the Pension Protection Fund1 (“the Board”) can collect in the 1st April 2026 – 31st March 2027 financial year. The levy ceiling is increased annually in line with growth in the general level of earnings.
Link to legislation
Information Security
2nd February
UK
Pending until April 2026
The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026
These are the sixth commencement regulations made under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
Link to legislation
Finance
4th February
UK
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Cryptoassets) Regulations 2026
This statutory instrument delivers the UK’s financial services regulatory framework for cryptoassets. The core of the regime amends the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 (S.I. 2001/544) (“the RAO”) to define the principal categories of cryptoassets that will be part of regulation: ‘qualifying cryptoassets’, ‘qualifying stablecoin’ (a subset of qualifying cryptoassets) and ‘specified investment cryptoassets’. This instrument also specifies certain activities related to these assets as regulated activities, such that any persons carrying on those activities by way of business needs to be authorised for that activity by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), or risk committing a criminal offence by breaching the general prohibition set out in section 19 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA”). These new regulated activities include issuing qualifying stablecoin, safeguarding of qualifying cryptoassets and relevant specified investment cryptoassets, operating a qualifying cryptoasset trading platform, dealing in qualifying cryptoassets as principal or agent, or arranging deals in qualifying cryptoassets, and qualifying cryptoasset staking.
Link to legislation
Building
4th February
Wales
The Building Act 1984 (Amendment of Commencement Order No. 1) and Building Safety Act 2022 (Amendment of Commencement Regulations No. 6) (Wales) Regulations 2026
These Regulations correct an error in the Welsh text of both the Building Act 1984 (Commencement No. 1) (Wales) Order 2025 and the Building Safety Act 2022 (Commencement No. 6) (Wales) Regulations 2025 to insert the coming into force date of 1 July 2026 into article 2 and regulation 2, respectively.
Link to legislation
Environment
5th February
Scotland
The Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2026
These Regulations amend the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Regulation 2018 (“the 2018 Regulations”) and the Environmental Authorisations (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025 (“the 2025 Regulations”), and additionally amend three other instruments as a consequence of provision made in the 2025 Regulations.
Link to legislation
Copyright
10th February
UK
The Copyright and Performances (Application to Other Countries) (Amendment) Order 2026
The UK signed a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the Republic of India on 24 July 2025 (the “UK-India CETA”). This instrument ensures that the UK is able to meet its obligations under the Intellectual Property Rights Chapter (“IP Chapter”) of the UK-India CETA in anticipation of, but not before, its entry into force.
Link to legislation
Environment
21st February
Scotland
The Environmental Protection (Wet Wipes Containing Plastic) (Scotland) Regulations 2026
Regulation 3 provides that it is an offence for a person, in the course of a business, to supply or offer to supply wet wipes containing plastic subject to certain exceptions (regulations 5 to 7). The exceptions include the supply of wet wipes containing plastic by registered pharmacies, supply for medical purposes, supply to businesses or supply to local authorities. A person found guilty of an offence under regulation 3 is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
Link to legislation
Finance
25th February
UK
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Exemption) (Amendment) Order 2026
The Exemption Order exempts certain persons from the general prohibition set out in section 19 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA”), which provides that no person may carry on a regulated activity in the United Kingdom unless they are authorised or exempt.
Link to legislation
Finance
26th February
UK
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 13) Regulations 2026
Section 1(1) of FSMA 2023 revokes the legislation listed in Schedule 1 to that Act, which includes Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements for credit institutions and investment firms and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 (EUR 2013/575) (“the Capital Requirements Regulation”).
Regulation 2 brings into force on 1st January 2027 section 1(1) of, and Schedule 1 to, FSMA 2023 so far as they relate to the revocation of Articles 4, 4A, 4B and 5 of the Capital Requirements Regulation. These Articles provide for definitions of terms used in the Capital Requirements Regulation. Some definitions in Article 4 are revoked on 1st January 2027 by virtue of regulation 3 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 12 and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026 (S.I. 2026/45 (C. 5)).
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.
