Pulse.Assent

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

“This afternoon the Prime Minister hosted a further meeting of her Business Advisory Council at Downing Street.

“The Prime Minister opened the roundtable with a summary of key moments in the past few weeks, including progress in the Brexit negotiations, the Chancellor’s Spring Statement and the Industrial Strategy.

“On the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the Prime Minister spoke about the need to reach agreement with the EU on the terms of the implementation period ahead of the March European Council next week, which the attendees agreed would be vital in providing certainty to businesses and people across the UK.

“She then reiterated the themes from her Mansion House Speech which set out an ambitious partnership with the EU, one driven by principled practicality rather than ideology. The business leaders welcomed the detail provided in the speech and gave their support.

“The Prime Minister and business leaders also discussed the government’s Industrial Strategy, agreeing on the importance for government and business to work together on all aspects of the plan, particularly investing in the infrastructure and skills needed to support UK productivity growth and the ambition of the government’s “Grand Challenges”.

“The meeting was also attended by the Chancellor of the Exchequer who provided an update on the Spring Statement, the Business Secretary, Greg Clark, who discussed the Industrial Strategy and Brexit Minister, Suella Fernandes, who spoke about Ministerial engagement with European Member States.”

Attendees

Ivan Menezes, CEO, Diageo

Constantin Cotzias, Director of Bloomberg Europe, Bloomberg

António Horta-Osório, CEO, Lloyds Banking Group

Jan du Plessis, Chairman, BT

Moya Greene, CEO, Royal Mail

Sir Charlie Mayfield, CEO, John Lewis Partnership

Ian Davis, Chairman, Rolls Royce

Mike Cherry OBE, National Chairman, FSB

Dr Adam Marshall, DG, BCC

Stephen Phipson CBE, DG, EEF

Carolyn Fairbairn, DG, CBI

Jayne-Anne Gadhia CBE, CEO, Virgin Money plc

Dame Helena, Head of Personal Investing, Legal & General Group plc

Oliver Benzecry, Chairman and Senior Managing Director, Accenture, UK and Ireland

Dame Carolyn McCall, CEO, ITV

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is warning young Brits following in the footsteps of globe-trotting celebs not to fall foul of lesser-known local laws and customs, which could land them in serious trouble.

New research from the FCO shows that one third of 18 – 24 year olds (33%) will be influenced by celebrities when preparing for their holiday this Easter, with nearly one in three (30%) saying stars inspire their travel destination.

However, many of these destinations have more unusual and surprising rules than UK travellers are used to.

As most young Brits don’t have A-listers’ concierge support when planning trips abroad, the FCO is urging British people to be aware of local laws and customs in the destinations they are travelling to by reading up on Travel Advice – something that fewer than two fifths of young people (38%) currently do – if they want to avoid getting into trouble abroad.

FCO analysis of ONS data has found a significant increase in Brits travelling further afield than the traditional European trips, often to popular celebrity destinations that have stricter laws and customs than the UK. Visits to Sri Lanka are up more than a fifth (22%) and the UAE up more than a sixth (17%).

Jack White, celeb content director at Now magazine said:

We’ve all felt the pang of envy that comes from scrolling through a celebrity’s luxury holiday snaps on social media, but if you’re ever lucky enough to end up in Dubai or St Lucia it’s worth remembering different countries have different rules – and sometimes even the stars seem unaware of this.

It’s easy to get caught up the moment on holiday, so it’s worth researching the local laws beforehand to make sure your dream trip doesn’t end in disaster. After all, there’s definitely nothing glamorous about ending up behind bars!

The FCO recommends Brits making trips abroad this Easter join the 16 million people a year who check its Travel Advice before they travel. All sorts of local laws and customs are covered in the travel advice, including the 10 listed below:

1. UAE: Swearing and making rude gestures (including online) are considered obscene acts and offenders can be jailed or deported.

2. Thailand: You can’t bring vaporisers, such as e-cigarettes, e-baraku or refills into Thailand. These items are likely to be confiscated and you could be fined or sent to prison for up to ten years if convicted.

3. Greece: Indecent behaviour, including mooning, isn’t tolerated and could result in arrest and a fine or a prison sentence.

4. Sri Lanka: The mistreatment of Buddhist images and artefacts is a serious offence and tourists have been convicted for this. British nationals have been refused entry to Sri Lanka or faced deportation for having visible tattoos of Buddha. Don’t pose for photographs standing in front of a statue of Buddha.

5. Japan: The use or possession of some medicines like Vicks Inhalers or painkillers containing Codeine is banned in Japan and can result in detention and deportation

6. Turkey: It is an offence to insult the Turkish nation or the national flag, or to deface or tear up currency. If you are convicted of any of these offences, you could face a prison sentence of between six months and three years.

7. Caribbean: Many Caribbean countries, such as Barbados, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia ban the wearing of camouflage clothing, including by children.

8. Spain: Causing a forest fire is treated as a criminal offence in Spain even if unintentional.

9. Australia: Australia has strict quarantine rules to keep out pests and diseases that could affect plant, animal and human health. Breaches of quarantine regulations can result in large fines.

10. Ukraine: Smoking and drinking alcoholic drinks in public places (including transport, bus stops, underground crossings, sports and government establishments, playgrounds and parks) is officially banned.

Julia Longbottom, FCO Consular Director said:

It’s great to see the British people being inspired to travel to new and exciting places. This makes it all the more important to follow our Travel Advice and respect local laws and customs to avoid unnecessary trouble. For instance, e-cigarettes are banned in Thailand and can result in a prison sentence of up to ten years.

Even in places closer to home, disrespecting local laws can have serious consequences – in Greece indecent behaviour, such as mooning, can be punishable with a fine or even a prison sentence. We see many cases each year of people breaking local laws and customs.

It is important that our travellers understand that the UK Government can’t give legal advice or get them out of prison. Instead, we want to do all we can to help British people stay safe when they are travelling, and avoid ending up in these difficult situations.

For more information and to find out about local laws and customs in destinations around the world, visit the FCO’s travel advice pages.

Further information

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook

• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

Updated rules to strengthen the government’s powers to scrutinise takeovers that may raise national security concerns in specific areas of the economy will be introduced to Parliament today (15 March 2018).

Under current rules, the government can only intervene in mergers when they meet certain tests related to the target company’s turnover or where the merger causes an increase in the parties’ overall share of supply of goods or services.

However, these rules do not properly recognise the growing importance of small British businesses in developing cutting edge technology products which can have national security applications.

In order to address this change in the market, the government will amend the tests for businesses in the military, dual-use, computing hardware and quantum technology sectors that are most likely to have implications for our security.

Today’s rule change will remove the requirement for a merger to lead to an increase in the share of supply. In the coming weeks the government will introduce complementary measures to lower the test for ministerial intervention in relation to the target business’s turnover to over £1 million, down from £70 million under current rules. Both are subject to Parliament’s approval.

Business Minister Richard Harrington said:

Around 75,000 new jobs were created in the UK last year thanks to foreign investment. However, our economy can only thrive if our national security is protected, so it is right that we keep our powers of intervention under review to ensure the rules keep pace with innovation.

These new measures will allow us to ensure that takeovers in key areas of the economy cannot risk the UK’s national security whilst maintaining our position as one of the most open and modern economies in the world.

The changes follow a consultation launched last year to amend the Enterprise Act to reform and strengthen the government’s powers. Today’s rule changes are the first step in its plans – broader changes will be announced in a white paper later this year.

The government has also published draft guidance for businesses so they can easily identify and adapt to the changes to legislation.

Notes to editors:

1. The National Security and Infrastructure Investment Review green paper, published on 17 October 2017, outlined the government’s plans to take a staged approach through short and long term measures to reform how it scrutinises national security implications of business transactions. Today’s measures are a response to this consultation on amending the Enterprise Act through secondary legislation.

   National security and infrastructure investment review with Part 1 government response and draft guidance

2. The consultation on longer term proposals closed on 9 January. The government will publish a response to this consultation in due course.

3. Under the current Enterprise Act 2002 ministers can intervene in mergers (foreign or domestic) that give rise to specific public interest concerns of national security, financial stability or media plurality. However, for ministers to be able to intervene, the transaction has to meet certain thresholds. These are that the target company has a UK turnover of over £70 million, or that the merger takes the merging parties’ combined share of supply to 25% or more (or increases an existing share of supply of 25% or more). There are limited exceptions to this related to some defence and media transactions.

4. The affirmative statutory instrument introduced today amends the share of supply test to allow the scrutiny of more mergers in three areas: (a) the military and dual-use sector, (b) 2 parts of the advanced technology sector, encompassing computing hardware and quantum technologies. For these areas alone, this instrument amends the share of supply test so that it is met where a merger or takeover involves a target with 25% or more share of supply in the UK, as well as where the deal leads to an increase in the share of supply to, or above, this threshold, which is the current requirement.

5. Subject to Parliamentary approval being obtained for this affirmative instrument, a second, negative statutory instrument will be laid to amend the turnover test to allow the scrutiny of more mergers in the same 3 areas of the economy. The second instrument will lower the threshold over which the target business’s UK turnover must be, from over £70 million to £1 million. We intend that both instruments would come into force at the same time, subject to scrutiny of the House.

6. The changes, whilst made for national security-related reasons, will also amend the thresholds that allow the independent Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to scrutinise merger for competition concerns. However, neither the government or the CMA expect that the changes will bring about a material change in the CMA’s approach to the assessment of mergers on competition grounds.

World-leading powers to ensure online sellers pay the right tax, and don’t leave law-abiding high street and online businesses at a disadvantage, have come into force today (15 March 2018). These were first announced by the Chancellor at Autumn Budget 2017.

The internet has revolutionised the way people shop and helped many businesses to sell their products across the UK. Online marketplaces can help those who sell through their platforms to understand the tax rules and therefore avoid fines from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). And, indeed, they have the responsibility to make sure that fraud does not happen on their watch.

These new rules strengthen powers to make online marketplaces accountable for VAT fraud committed by online sellers on their platforms.

These powers are known by the term joint-and-several liability (JSL) for online marketplaces.

If sellers based in the UK or overseas are not paying the correct VAT when selling in the UK, and are not removed from the site following the issue of a notice by HMRC to the marketplace, HMRC will pursue the marketplaces themselves for any future unpaid tax by those sellers.

For any sales made from today onwards, the rules also make online marketplaces liable for VAT where they knew or should have known that an overseas online seller should have been VAT-registered, but was not.

This sends a clear message that businesses in the UK and overseas, online and on the high street, must all play by the same rules, protecting traditional high street and legitimate online sellers who pay what they owe.

Marketplaces must now also make sure sellers using their platforms display a valid VAT number on the site, when they are given one. This will help buyers make an informed choice about buying goods from a VAT-registered businesses with confidence.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mel Stride, said:

Whilst the honest majority pay what they owe, some businesses that sell goods online to UK shoppers are failing to pay the correct amount of VAT.

This behaviour unfairly undercuts businesses trading in the UK that play by the rules, abuses the trust of buyers, and deprives the government of significant revenue that funds vital public services.

We are clear that everyone must pay their fair share of tax, and tackling tax evasion in all its forms is a top priority for the government.

The UK has led the way in tackling this type of fraud and, in September 2016, was the first country to introduce tough powers to tackle VAT evasion by overseas sellers – these have already gone a long way to remove over a thousand non-compliant overseas businesses from selling goods online in the UK and to motivate tens of thousands of overseas sellers to register for VAT.

The new rules go further to strengthen and develop our operational response to online VAT fraud and error from both UK and overseas businesses.

As well as this, businesses can apply to register for the Fulfilment House Due Diligence Scheme from 1 April 2018. This scheme, which was first announced at Budget 2016, will require businesses that store imported goods for, or on behalf of, overseas sellers from outside the EU to keep certain records and perform certain checks on the goods they are storing.

Taken together, the respective packages of measures announced at Budget 2016 and Autumn Budget 2017 will help protect around £1 billion of tax revenue by 2023, and further enhance HMRC’s ability to ensure everyone is paying their fair share.

Further information

For more detail, read:

• guidance on VAT: online marketplace seller checks
• guidance on VAT: businesses that sell goods in the UK using online marketplaces
• measures announced in Autumn Budget 2017
• measures announced in Budget 2016
• guidance on the Fulfilment House Due Diligence Scheme