Law: National Security and Investment Act 2021 (UK)

Featured in Foreign Direct Investment Regulation Guide - Second Edition

Global Competition Review held a discussion on recent developments in foreign direct investment regulations since the Foreign Direct Investment Regulation Guide was published. Chaired by Veronica Roberts of Herbert Smith Freehills, the panel included Peter Camesasca in Brussels, Andrea Carreri of LCA in Italy, Jason Gudofsky of McCarthy Tétrault in Canada and Jeremy Zucker of Dechert in the United States. We also thank Covington & Burling LLP for its support. Participants not only offered insight into the key features of regimes in their own jurisdictions but also drilled into issues such as the types of remedies being imposed and the extent to which these can be negotiated and the all-important question of how the investor’s nationality affects outcomes.

18 September 2023

The UK government’s second-ever National Security and Investment Act report fails to provide much-needed transparency about the regime, but it does confirm that Chinese investors face more scrutiny than those from any other country, local lawyers say.

12 July 2023

A top US foreign investment review official has encouraged information-sharing between allies to prevent “countries of concern” from gaining access to technologies that pose national security risks.

09 June 2023

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change last month published a report slamming the UK’s foreign investment regime for putting the country’s national security at risk. Jeeger Kakkad, the report's author and director of the Future of Britain initiative at the institute, spoke to GCR about how the National Security and Investment Act poses a threat to security, how the regime can be more transparent and the urgent need for government guidance.

06 April 2023

The UK government plans to update its guidance on the National Security and Investment Act less than a month after an advisory organisation set up by former prime minister Tony Blair criticised the new regime for being ambiguous and lacking transparency.

04 April 2023

The foreign investment control regime that the UK government established last year is “vague” and puts the country’s security at risk, an advisory organisation set up by former prime minister Tony Blair has claimed.

14 March 2023

The UK government has refused to retroactively review the acquisition of a semiconductor company by a Chinese investment group following a request by a senior politician, prompting lawyers to question the consistency of the regime’s scrutiny of such deals.

26 January 2023

In effect since last January, the UK’s National Security and Investment Act has overhauled the country’s foreign investment control rules. Arnold & Porter partner John Schmidt and counsel Ludovica Pizzetti shed light on an opaque regime that has already caused five deals to be blocked and another nine to be remedied in its first year.

23 January 2023

The head of the UK parliament’s foreign affairs select committee has called for a retroactive national security review into the completed sale of a domestic semiconductor start-up to a Chinese special-purpose vehicle.

12 January 2023

The UK's new foreign investment control regime continues to suffer from a lack of transparency and certainty, which is damaging the credibility of the system, lawyers have warned.

09 December 2022