So after all the shouting, the half-truths and the speculation, there it is, a vote to leave. What does this mean for your business? What will your Board need to know today?
Let us be clear – no one knows all the details of what happens next, and that includes all the people who said that they did. But there is still plenty of reassurance available for many months, potentially years, into the future. In immediate legal terms there is much less to this than meets the eye.
Remember that the vote is just a vote. By itself it does not alter our legal relationships with Europe at all. Even if Parliament follows the stated wish of the people and formally petitions to leave the EU, the constitutional procedures for an exit will potentially take years to run their course. There are unlikely to be material changes to UK law during that time.
But that does not mean that you should not now be proactive in reviewing how the vote may or may not affect your legal obligations and best practice. In this note we summarise by topic some of the more immediate considerations which may arise in your business.
