This New Year is exceptional bringing with it a New Beginning for us all.
I hope that this New Year will enable us all to start to understand and come to terms with the impact of the past two years, enable us all to find our own individual path away from the Pandemic, and have the strength to deal with whatever lies in our futures in 2022.
Companies in 2022 will continue to face the pressures of reacting quickly not just to the Pandemic but now to the seemingly overnight transformation wrought by the recent lifting of so many restrictions.
On a perhaps more mundane level the Government recently announced its legislative programme for 2022 listing 44 Bills to be drafted and published in 2022. The 44 Bills range over virtually every aspect of public, private and corporate life. For companies though perhaps the Bills of most interest will be
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Competition (Amendment) Bill
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Protected Disclosures Bill
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Co-op Societies Bill
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Limited Partnership Bill
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Communications (Data Retention and disclosure) Bill
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Cybercrime Bill
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Charities Amendment Bill
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Right to Remote Working Bill
The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement will soon be transformed into the Corporate Enforcement Authority by the Companies (Corporate Enforcement Authority) Act 2021 signed into law on 22.12.2022 and expected to be commenced any day now. It will be interesting to see how the once familiar ODCE will operate and be judged as it morphs into the Corporate Enforcement Authority.