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ARTICLE · 13 OCTOBER 2021

National Security & Investment Act (Updated)

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The National Security and Investment Act 2021 will introduce a new mandatory notification regime for transactions that comes into force on 4 January 2022. We take a look at what it will cover.

United KingdomGovernment, Public Sector
Steve Barnett
Steve Barnett

The National Security and Investment Act 2021 – a law that will introduce a screening process for certain acquisitions and investments.

The National Security and Investment Act 2021 will introduce a new mandatory notification regime for transactions that comes into force on 4 January 2022. We take a look at what it will cover.

Key features of the Act

  • Notification of transactions: The Act obliges anyone acquiring a stake of more than 25% in an entity that is active in certain specific sectors (see below) to notify the Government of the transaction (and prohibits completion of the transaction until Government approval has been obtained). This has been raised from 15% as originally drafted, as a result of criticism from businesses who argued that this was too low. This change reduces the scope of the Act significantly, but not so much as to totally alleviate the concerns we address below. It will, however, be welcome news to those within the venture capital

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