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When the regulator knocks, will you be ready?
Companies operating in the UK are subject to increasing regulation. This is borne out by the results of our survey of senior management, directors and legal counsel in the UK, 87% of whom felt that the level of regulation and scrutiny had increased over the past five years.
However, companies and directors are leaving themselves at financial and reputational risk. Fines and criminal sanctions are on the increase, which is partly due to a limited understanding of compliance obligations. Notwithstanding the growing impact of regulators and their increasing willingness to exercise their powers, more than half of respondents in our survey were unaware that their businesses were regulated by the Environment Agency, the Office of Fair Trading or the Pensions Regulator, despite the fact that all of these watchdogs have jurisdiction over every company operating in England. Furthermore, a significant proportion of those surveyed did not realise that the European Commission and the Health and Safety Executive had powers over their activities.
This lack of awareness highlights how exposed many businesses may be to the disruption of a regulatory investigation and the penalties that may follow. Recent cases demonstrate that companies that breach regulatory requirements not only damage their reputation through negative publicity but also face substantial penalties.
In regulatory matters preparation is everything. Our cross-practice group of specialist lawyers provide clients with clear, practical advice so that reputational and other risks can be minimised.
To download a copy of our report, please click here
For further details on our regulatory group and how we can help, please contact:
Jonathan Warne
Partner
NABARRO LLP
T +44 (0)20 7524 6130
j.warne@nabarro.com
