Brexit Update 30th October 2020

• DCMS Seven Point Check List

DCMS has pushed a Seven Point Checklist for businesses associated with their remit to help them to prepare for Brexit.

The Seven Steps in the Checklist are:

• • Step 1: Check your employees can still meet professional requirements for the country they’re working in, including whether they need a visa or work permit or need to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.
  • Step 2: Check if you need to change the way you receive personal data from the EU/EEA.
  • Step 3: Check what you need to do to visit Europe after the transition period.
  • Step 4: Check the impact on any arts, cultural or heritage services you provide to organisations or individuals based in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, including for ecommerce and eu domain names.
  • Step 5: Prepare for moving goods in and out of the UK, including works of art and historical objects.
  • Step 6: Check the UK’s continued participation in EU programmes funded by the current EU Multiannual Financial Framework.
  • Step 7:Prepare for the new points-based immigration system will introduce job, salary and language requirements.

This is another page that it is well worth bookmarking as it links to various guidance documents associated with each point in the checklist and no doubt these documents will be updated as things progress,

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/preparing-for-the-end-of-the-transition-period-if-you-work-in-arts-heritage-and-culture-sectors

 

• VAT Refund Scheme Lobbying

The Tourism Alliance is continuing to support the lobbying work being led by AIR and the New West End Company regarding proposals to remove the VAT Refund Scheme for all visitors to the UK from 1 January 2021 rather than extending it to EU nations in order to help kickstart the recovery of international tourism. One of the main issues this week was HMRC publishing a “Myth Buster” Document to try to justify the Government’s decision. However, this document itself contained a significant number of myths.

A good example of this was quoting VisitBritain research which showed that shopping wasn’t a motivating factor in overseas visitors coming to the UK. However, the reason that the people interviewed didn’t say that shopping was a motivating factor was quite simple – the research didn’t ask them if it was.

I’ve attached a copy of rebuttal to the HMRC document for your information.

UKTRF and AIR_HMT VAT Myth buster rebuttal

 

• CBI Conference

The CBI Conference is being held on 2-4 November. While it is not specifically Brexit focused – but it certainly will have a lot of Brexit related content. If you want to watch it you can sign up for free as an affiliate through the Tourism Alliance’s temporary membership.

https://www.cbi.org.uk/events/annual-conference-2020/?utm_campaign=20201030_Annual%20Conference%202020_Email%207_Member_Unopens&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua#tickets

 

• Air, Sea, Road and Rail Transport from January 2021

The Government has collated all the transport related guidance for travel between the UK and the EU together on one page to make it easier to access. Apart from road haulage particularly new but, again, it’s a page worth bookmarking.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/air-sea-road-and-rail-transport-from-january-2021?utm_source=31d28746-0819-4900-8034-770487f43610&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

 

• Intellectual Property And Brexit

The Ministry of Justice has partnered with the Law Society to run a free seminar on the impact of Brexit in intellectual property which will discuss:

• • Wrapping up the Transitional Period provisions granted under the Withdrawal Agreement
  • Protections for holders of UK Intellectual Property across Europe post 2020
  • Future enforcement from any breaches of IP rights within the EU
  • The role for UK IP lawyers in cross border proceedings

You can sign up on the following link

https://events.lawsociety.org.uk/ClientApps/Silverbear.Web.EDMS/public/default.aspx?tabId=37&id=2745&orgId=1&guid=6cbcbc20-2fc5-4e32-bb6d-f8ad1430895e