Legal and Guidance Update October 2023
What ISO Compliance Obligations are new in October 2023
October 2023 has seen some new compliance obligations published from both the UK and Republic of Ireland governments that will be useful for ISO Compliance Managers.
In the UK, the Online Safety Bill has become the Online Safety Act 2023 and was published in the final weeks of October. The Act has been hailed as ‘a groundbreaking piece of legislation’ and has been designed create the safest online environment in the world. This is in the context of growing concerns, both felt and realised that the internet is increasingly unsafe, particularly for young and vulnerable individuals. There have been many high profile cases of tragic cases, including child suicides that arise from online content available on the internet.
The Act, introduces unprecedented duties on businesses. The Online Safety Act 2023 will apply to a wide range of businesses, including those providing
• ‘user-to-user services’
• online search services and search engines
• large social media companies
• online gaming platforms,
• advertising services,
• e-commerce platforms
• Online marketplaces
If you have activities involved in these types of services, you will need to implement controls to protect users and adhere to these regulations, even if you are not based in the UK. The Act also sets the framework for large fines for non-compliance.
Also new is the ‘Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023’ which is relevant currently to large Companies. The new Act puts in place a number of requirements and identifies offences where the organisation commits a fraud that intends to benefit itself. This is a strict liability offence so there can be not any excuses for the organisation’s leaders authorised or had knowledge of the fraud. Furthermore, if it is convicted, the organisation is liable to an unlimited fine.
The new offence will only apply to “relevant bodies”, defined as “large organisations” operating in any sector, including commercial businesses, charities, NGOs and public bodies, that satisfy at least two of the following requirements in the financial year preceding the year of the fraud offence:
• turnover of more than £36 million
• total assets of more than £18 million
• an average of more than 250 employees
In addition, you can read more about the following new legislation on our website:
• Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 (United Kingdom)
• Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2023 (Republic of Ireland)
What Compliance Obligations have been amended?
There are a high number of amendments to current statutory and regulatory requirements. These include The Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Wales) Act 2023 which comes into effect on the 30th October as a result of the associated Commencement Order.
Full subscribers will have received the full update via their email so please check through this for your full information.
For those of you who do not subscribe, a flavour of these amendments includes the:
• The Data Protection (Adequacy) (United States of America) Regulations 2023
• The Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023
If the relevant requirements are in your Registers, these will be applied automatically and you will be able to see them via the Amendments Dashboard item.
What’s new in the ISO Compliance Register Tool?
Here at ISO Compliance Register HQ, we’ve been busy as well developing new functionality to ensure that the tool is as easy for you to use as possible.
One of the key features that we have introduced is the enhanced ability to manage your Users in the tool.
Now, users that have had accounts created, but have not yet validated those accounts can be managed more easily. Their account icons will stand out as they show in red. Editors can send the Users reminders to ensure that they validate their account and start to participate in the Compliance routines.
Over the next few months, we will be rolling new functionality for:
1) Improving search processes and filtering. This has become more apparent as we increase the number of articles on the site, and especially as those articles contain content for the UK nations, the Republic of Ireland and the European Union.
2) Transferring responsibilities when people leave. One suggestion that we had from a User was that when a person leaves the company, there is no current method to transfer their tasks and relevant information to others. We have designed a process which is now being tested, so we will look forward to rolling this out in November.
