Mr. Neil Willoughby:

I will respond to that as well. First and foremost, with regard to the CSRD, generally speaking it will have secondary legislation which sets out the detailed standards - the ESRS has been referenced - so it is less of an issue. With regard to corporate sustainability, due diligence and that particular legislation, it would be helpful to expand the Single Market harmonisation clause that already exists in the legislation to a greater number of issues within it. One particular example is that the definitions are not covered by it, so there could be varying legal interpretations across different countries. That is a potential issue and we have to see if that actually comes to fruition.

Similarity, prioritisation is not covered by the Single Market harmonisation principle so there is the potential for different concepts in terms of risks and supply chains in one country versus another. The more it can be harmonised, the better, particularly for this type of complex legislation. A directive can be quite challenging to work with in that it is not prescriptive in terms of what is set out in fine detail. It allows members states some flexibility in how they implement it, whereas a regulation would set it out in fine detail. Generally speaking, the more fine detail there is in the CSDDD, the better because then there is an equal level playing field between all member states and consistency for companies that operate in more than one country within the European Union.