The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) recently announced a new online tracking strategy, which aims to ensure a “fair and transparent online world where people are given meaningful control over how they are tracked online.”
Online advertising is one of the ICO’s current areas of strategic focus
Continue Reading ICO announces its online tracking strategy for 2025On January 10, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Department of State intensified sanctions against Russia with new measures targeting Russia’s energy sector. According to the Treasury Department’s press release, these measures are intended “to fulfill the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy” and “substantially increase the sanctions risks associated with the Russian oil trade.”
The new U.S. sanctions include a determination by the U.S. Department of the Treasury authorizing the imposition of property-blocking sanctions against any person who is determined by the Treasury Secretary or Secretary of State (in consultation with one another) to operate or have operated in the Russian energy sector, and a determination issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) prohibiting—effective February 27, 2025—the provision of “petroleum services” from the United States or by a U.S. person to any person located in Russia. In addition, OFAC and the U.S. Department of State collectively designated for property-blocking sanctions more than 400 individuals, entities, and vessels from various countries involved in Russia’s energy sector, including two of Russia’s most significant oil producers and exporters—Public Joint Stock Company Gazprom Neft (“Gazprom Neft”) and Surgutneftegas, along with more than two dozen of their subsidiaries. The designations included more than 180 vessels, many of which are part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of vessels involved in the trade of Russian oil, as well as several Russian energy executives, oil traders, oilfield service providers, and financial and insurance entities associated with Russia’s energy sector. The designations also covered two active Russian liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) projects and a Russian oil project.
On January 15, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Department of State designated or re-designated under additional sanctions authority nearly 250 individuals and entities for property-blocking sanctions, including actors based in China.
OFAC also issued multiple general licenses related to the above designations, including a general license authorizing until February 27, 2025, transactions ordinarily incident and necessary to the wind down of transactions involving Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, their designated subsidiaries, and entities that they own 50 percent or more, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, subject to certain conditions. In addition, OFAC revoked a general license that had authorized transactions with certain vessels subject to U.S. property-blocking sanctions due to their ownership, and amended two existing general licenses. One of these amended general licenses, General License 8L (which supersedes General License 8K), significantly narrows the scope of permissible energy transactions involving certain blocked financial institutions to include only wind-down transactions until March 12, 2025.Continue Reading New U.S. and UK Sanctions, Including Related to Russia’s Energy Sector
Economic Turmoil in the UK
The rate on the 10-year benchmark UK government bond has reached levels last seen in 2008. The rate on the 30-year bond stands at a 27-year high. Today, the Government sold £1 billion of bonds at the most expensive terms since 2004 – albeit with apparently good market demand. Sterling has suffered its worst trading losses for over two years. UK debt has risen to nearly 100% of GDP. Inflation is proving to be sticky (recent OECD data showed the UK with the G7 highest inflation in November) – although today’s inflation figures show a small drop to 2.5%.
Why is this happening?
International
It would be unfair to heap all the blame at the UK Government’s door. Many of the factors fuelling the current market turbulence are outside the UK’s control. The looming twin threats of President Trump’s tariffs and his tight immigration policy, together with rising oil prices (up nearly 10% in the first two weeks of 2025) have stoked global inflationary pressures, leading the world’s most powerful central banks to hold back on cutting interest rates and raising borrowing costs around the world. Markets appear to be pricing in higher US budget deficits and national debt (caused by Trump’s tax-cutting plans) adding to the supply of US Treasury bonds with resulting higher US interest rates and a stronger dollar. All of which impacts the UK by pushing up bond UK rates, increasing the deficit and hitting growth.
Domestic
However, although bond rates are increasing across the globe (France, Spain and Germany have all seen similar increases), the UK does appear to be particularly vulnerable to this current bout of global economic uncertainty. A combination of uniquely-domestic factors (including the resilience of wage growth, service sector prices, and concerns about the inflationary impact of Labour’s tax and spend measures announced in the October Budget) has depressed consumer and business confidence and led to anaemic economic growth.Continue Reading The Political ramifications of the UK’s economic travails
In case you missed it before the holidays: on 17 December 2024, the UK Government published a consultation on “Copyright and Artificial Intelligence” in which it examines proposals to change the UK’s copyright framework in light of the growth of the artificial intelligence (“AI”) sector.
The Government sets out the following core objectives for a new copyright and AI framework:
In this post, we consider some of the most noteworthy aspects of the Government’s proposal.
First and foremost, the Government is contemplating the introduction of a new TDM exception that would apply to TDM conducted for any purpose, including commercial purposes. The Government does not set out how it would define TDM, but refers to data mining as “the use of automated techniques to analyse large amounts of information (for AI training or other purposes)”. This new exception would apply where:Continue Reading UK Government Proposes Copyright & AI Reform
On November 6, 2024, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) released its AI Tools in recruitment audit outcomes report (“Report”). This Report documents the ICO’s findings from a series of consensual audit engagements conducted with AI tool developers and providers. The goal of this process was to assess compliance with data protection law, identify any risks or room for improvement, and provide recommendations for AI providers and recruiters. The audits ran across sourcing, screening, and selection processes in recruitment, but did not include AI tools used to process biometric data, or generative AI. This work follows the publication of the Responsible AI in Recruitment guide by the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) in March 2024.
Background
The ICO conducted a series of voluntary audits from August 2023 to May 2024. During the audits, the ICO made 296 recommendations, all of which were accepted or partially accepted by the organisations involved. These recommendations address areas such as:
Areas for Improvement
Based on its findings during the audits, the ICO identified several areas for improvement for both AI recruiters and AI providers. The key areas for improvement across both were:Continue Reading ICO Audit on AI Recruitment Tools
Last month we provided an update on the UK Government’s draft post-market surveillance statutory instrument (“PMS SI”) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (“MHRA’s”) intention to run a further public consultation on proposed changes to pre-market medical device regulation under an upcoming statutory instrument (“Pre-Market SI”).
On 14 November 2024, the MHRA launched a consultation on proposed pre-market regulatory changes for medical devices and in vitro diagnostic (“IVD”) devices (the “Consultation”). The MHRA intends to incorporate the feedback from the Consultation in drafting the Pre-Market SI.
The Consultation, which is open until 5 January 2025, addresses four areas of the future regulatory framework for medical devices in Great Britain (“GB”):
It builds on the MHRA’s previous consultation in November 2021 (see our update here) and the responses to that consultation.
In the Ministerial Foreword to the Consultation, the Government makes clear that its reforms to the regulatory framework for medical devices in GB are focused on improving “timely access to high-quality healthcare”. However, the Government recognises that this aim must be balanced with ensuring confidence in the safety and effectiveness of “groundbreaking medical devices”.
We discuss the four areas of the Consultation below.Continue Reading MHRA Consults on New UK Pre-Market Medical Device Measures
On 21 October 2024, the UK Government laid the draft Post-market Surveillance statutory instrument (“PMS SI”) before Parliament (see the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (“MHRA’s”) press release here). Once implemented, the PMS SI will further amend the UK’s Medical Devices Regulations 2002 (“UK MDRs”) by introducing new vigilance requirements for medical devices already on the Great Britain (“GB”) market. The proposed updates to the UK MDRs seek to bring it into greater alignment with the EU’s Medical Devices Regulation 2017/745 (“EU MDR”) and In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices Regulation 2017/746 (“EU IVDR”), whilst also taking advantage of certain opportunities resulting from the UK’s withdrawal from the EU to build on and diverge from this legislation.
The long-awaited draft PMS SI follows the Government’s response in June 2022 to the MHRA’s 2021 consultation on the future regulation of medical devices in the UK. In January 2024, the Government published its ‘Roadmap towards the future regulatory framework for medical devices’, which set out the intended timeframe for delivery of the future regulatory framework.
Since the Government’s response in June 2022, reform of the regulatory framework for medical devices has suffered several delays as a result of various factors, including (i) the extension of the transitional periods under the EU MDR and EU IVDR (see our update here) and knock-on impact on UK strategy, (ii) the UK proposals to adopt a new international recognition procedure for device approvals (see our update here), and (iii) a change of government.
The draft PMS SI represents the new Government’s first step in updating the UK’s legal framework for medical devices. Subject to the PMS SI’s passage through Parliament, the final version is expected to come into force in the summer of 2025.
What are the Key Changes?
Post-market surveillance (“PMS”) requires manufacturers to monitor the safety of a medical device after it has been released on the market, and, where necessary, take appropriate action to prevent or reduce the risk of an identified safety issue. The current UK MDRs contain high-level provisions relating to PMS, which are supplemented by MHRA guidance (which is based on European Commission MEDDEV guidance applicable to the now repealed EU Medical Devices Directive 93/42/EEC).
The Government hopes the draft PMS SI will improve patient safety by introducing more stringent and clearer PMS requirements for both CE marked devices and UKCA marked devices that are placed on the market or put into service in GB. To that end, the draft PMS SI introduces the following:Continue Reading UK’s Medical Device Post-market Surveillance Statutory Instrument Laid Before Parliament – What are the Key Changes for Medical Device Regulation?
The UK Government has announced that it intends to introduce the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill (the “Bill”) to Parliament in 2025. Formally proposed as part of the King’s Speech in July, this Bill is intended to strengthen the UK’s cross-sectoral cyber security legislation to better protect the
Continue Reading What to expect from the UK’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill (and when)
This update focuses on how growing quantum sector investment in the UK and US is leading to the development and commercialization of quantum computing technologies with the potential to revolutionize and disrupt key sectors. This is a fast-growing area that is seeing significant levels of public and private investment activity. We take a look at how approaches differ in the UK and US, and discuss how a concerted, international effort is needed both to realize the full potential of quantum technologies and to mitigate new risks that may arise as the technology matures.
Quantum Computing
Quantum computing uses quantum mechanics principles to solve certain complex mathematical problems faster than classical computers. Whilst classical computers use binary “bits” to perform calculations, quantum computers use quantum bits (“qubits”). The value of a bit can only be zero or one, whereas a qubit can exist as zero, one, or a combination of both states (a phenomenon known as superposition) allowing quantum computers to solve certain problems exponentially faster than classical computers.
The applications of quantum technologies are wide-ranging and quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize many sectors, including life-sciences, climate and weather modelling, financial portfolio management and artificial intelligence (“AI”). However, advances in quantum computing may also lead to some risks, the most significant being to data protection. Hackers could exploit the ability of quantum computing to solve complex mathematical problems at high speeds to break currently used cryptography methods and access personal and sensitive data.
This is a rapidly developing area that governments are only just turning their attention to. Governments are focusing not just on “quantum-readiness” and countering the emerging threats that quantum computing will present in the hands of bad actors (the US, for instance, is planning the migration of sensitive data to post-quantum encryption), but also on ramping up investment and growth in quantum technologies. Continue Reading Quantum Computing: Developments in the UK and US
This update focuses on how growing quantum sector investment in the UK and US is leading to the development and commercialization of quantum computing technologies with the potential to revolutionize and disrupt key sectors. This is a fast-growing area that is seeing significant levels of public and private investment activity. We take a look at how approaches differ in the UK and US, and discuss how a concerted, international effort is needed both to realize the full potential of quantum technologies and to mitigate new risks that may arise as the technology matures.
Quantum Computing
Quantum computing uses quantum mechanics principles to solve certain complex mathematical problems faster than classical computers. Whilst classical computers use binary “bits” to perform calculations, quantum computers use quantum bits (“qubits”). The value of a bit can only be zero or one, whereas a qubit can exist as zero, one, or a combination of both states (a phenomenon known as superposition) allowing quantum computers to solve certain problems exponentially faster than classical computers.
The applications of quantum technologies are wide-ranging and quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize many sectors, including life-sciences, climate and weather modelling, financial portfolio management and artificial intelligence (“AI”). However, advances in quantum computing may also lead to some risks, the most significant being to data protection. Hackers could exploit the ability of quantum computing to solve complex mathematical problems at high speeds to break currently used cryptography methods and access personal and sensitive data.
This is a rapidly developing area that governments are only just turning their attention to. Governments are focusing not just on “quantum-readiness” and countering the emerging threats that quantum computing will present in the hands of bad actors (the US, for instance, is planning the migration of sensitive data to post-quantum encryption), but also on ramping up investment and growth in quantum technologies. Continue Reading Quantum Computing: Developments in the UK and US