Updated government guidance on the National Security and Investment Act

The government has published updated Market Guidance on the National Security and Investment Act 2021 (NSI Act).

The NSI Act came into force in January 2022 and gave the UK government power to scrutinise a wide range of transactions on national security grounds, and made notification of relevant transactions in 17 specified sectors mandatory (see our detailed briefing on the regime for more detail).

The additions and clarifications in the latest version of the Market Guidance include:

• additional guidance in relation to issues such as acquisitions involving parties who are in material financial distress, the timing of a notification, the stages of the NSI Act review process, and the government’s powers to provide financial assistance to businesses and other parties affected by a final order under the NSI Act; and
• for the 17 specified sectors where notification is mandatory, some more detail on how to engage with government if there is significant uncertainty about whether an acquisition is notifiable.

For further information on the updated guidance, and other developments including that the government will be seeking to make the NSI Act regime more open and transparent, see our competition team’s blog post here.