Your commercial news round-up: Liz Truss, online safety bill, recession, SRA and sexual misconduct, greenwashing

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Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, passed away at Balmoral aged 96 on Thursday afternoon.*

This week we saw Liz Truss appointed as the UK’s new prime in the midst of the UK entering a recession. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) deals with the issue of rising sexual misconduct claims, and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigates greenwashing by popular brands. With so much going on, here are some of our top picks for this week:

• Liz Truss has been appointed the UK’s new prime minister after being asked to form government by the Queen in Balmoral earlier this week. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “The Queen received in audience The Right Honourable Elizabeth Truss MP today and requested her to form a new administration Ms Truss accepted Her Majesty’s offer and kissed hands upon her appointment as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.”

As new prime minister, Truss has announced her plans to dilute legislation aimed at making the internet safer due to rightwing Conservative MP’s concerns about its regulatory over-reach and restrictions on free speech. The draft ‘online safety bill’ is designed to force tech platforms such as Twitter and Google to deal with harmful content on the internet, such as racism and sexual abuse.

Truss said: “What I want to make sure is we protect the under-18s from harm, but we also make sure free speech is allowed, so there may be some tweaks required.”

• According to the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC), the UK is due to enter a recession before the year is up. However, despite other predictions, the BCC has said it expects the economy to grow in 2023 at a rate of 0.2% and further grow in 2024 at a rate of 1%. Inflation has been forecast to peak at 14% in the fourth quarter of this year, fall to 5% by the end of 2023 and hit the Bank of England’s target  2% by the fourth quarter of 2024.

Alex Veitch, director of policy at the BCC, said: "The extreme inflationary pressures already present are only likely to increase as we head towards Christmas; with the UK economy already thought to be in recession.”

• The SRA has provided detailed guideline of what will or will not constitute sexual misconduct by solicitors due to a rise in complaints over the past five years. There have been 251 complaints about sexual misconduct from 2018 to date, a significant increase from 30 in the preceding five years. The guidance offers advice on issues such as workplace comments, consent, vulnerability and seniority of complainants, alcohol consumption and instances where a complainant has been touched.

Paul Philip, the SRA’s chief executive, said: “We take reports of sexual misconduct seriously. These can be sensitive and difficult issues and we want to be clear about our expectations, not least for firms, as people often come to us because they are dissatisfied with the way their firm has dealt with their concerns.”

• The CMA has launched investigations into several popular brands, including ASOS, regarding sustainability claims. Essentially, the CMA will be investigating whether these companies are invoking eco-positive change or simply making misleading claims.

Sarah Cardell, the CMA’s chief executive, said: “People who want to ‘buy green’ should be able to do so confident that they aren’t being misled. Eco-friendly and sustainable products can play a role in tackling climate change, but only if they are genuine. We’ll be scrutinising green claims from ASOS, Boohoo and George at Asda to see if they stack up. Should we find these companies are using misleading eco claims, we won’t hesitate to take enforcement action – through the courts if necessary.”