From 21 to 27 February, a series of on- and off-the-field interactions will highlight the shared love of sport and the opportunities it can create for people across both nations.

The Week of Sport will showcase the best of sport with events involving Indian and British personalities reflecting on their own journeys. It will include Olympic and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Neeraj Chopra, cricketer Dinesh Karthik, para-badminton World Champion Manasi Joshi, tennis legend Vijay Amritraj and India rugby captain Vahbiz Bharucha among others.

Alex Ellis, British High Commissioner to India, said:

The UK and India share a love for sports. Cricket, football, tennis, badminton, and hockey bring us together. The Week of Sport is a celebration of this bond and our living bridge. I look forward to more activities this year as India celebrates 75 years of Independence and the UK hosts the Commonwealth Games and the final match of the Test series.

This week’s activity leads up to ‘India-UK Together 2022’ initiative. The joint initiative, led by the British Council and the Indian Council for Cultural relations, will launch later this year. It will celebrate the unique connections that can help shape the future of both nations through a diverse programme of activities – highlighting the strong cultural links between Britons and Indians – across sport, education, the arts, and much more.

As two great democracies, both India and the UK share a vision to empower the next generation of leaders.

Further information

The India-UK Week of Sport is being celebrated from 21 to 27 February with both on- and off-the-field activities across themes highlighting diversity in sports, including cricket, hockey, football, track and field, racquet sports and rugby. Follow the celebration online on @UKinIndia. Join the conversation and share your favourite India-UK sporting memories on Twitter with #IndiaUKTogether.

The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games will take place from 28 July to 8 August 2022 and will be the first major multi-sport event to award more medals to women than men.

Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Boris Johnson have made an historic commitment to strengthen work between the UK and India over the next decade with the 2030 Roadmap for future relations.

The UK and India benefit from a unique ‘Living Bridge’ of people, ideas, institutions, arts and culture – that sits separate to the government-to-government relationship. The UK is home to a vibrant Indian diaspora of more than 1.6 million and has its largest overseas diplomatic network anywhere in the world right here in India.

For media queries, please contact:

Media queries: BHCMediaDelhi@fco.gov.uk

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A new law will help UK firms do business while maintaining strong protections for consumers, the government has announced today (Monday 21 February).

Currently, the UK has retained EU rules that exempt businesses from competition law in certain circumstances. The government has received expert advice from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority which recommended a new, bespoke competition law exemption for the UK, replacing the retained EU rules which expire on 31 May 2022.

The new rules will ensure competition law does not impose unnecessary burdens, encouraging so-called ‘vertical agreements’ which are agreements between companies at different levels of the supply chain, such as farmers and grocers.

These vertical agreements benefit consumers by encouraging efficiencies, investment and innovation. Benefits of the new UK system include:

• removing wide retail parity obligations from the exemptions. These obligations specify that a product or service may not be offered on better terms on any other indirect sales channels, including through intermediaries, such as other distributors or online platforms. For example, currently a travel agent might require a hotel not to offer its rooms on any other sales channel at a better price or on better terms and conditions, limiting the incentives for travel agents to compete
• creating a more level playing field for high streets and brick-and-mortar retailers by expanding the exemptions to cover agreements that treat online and offline sales differently. This includes charging the same distributor a higher price for products intended to be resold online than for products intended to be sold offline
• more flexibility for businesses to design their distribution systems, for example by allowing a business to combine distribution rights by allowing multiple retailers of its product in one geographical area while having an exclusive arrangement with another retailer in another area

The government is consulting on the legal wording of the exemption. The Competition and Markets Authority will publish further guidance to accompany this legislation, the CMA Verticals Guidance, in due course.

The Business Secretary can make a ‘block exemption order’ to exempt types of agreements from competition law because their anti-competitive effects are outweighed by their benefits.

Following EU Exit, 7 EU block exemptions were retained in UK law, with 6 due to expire in coming years. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) last year reviewed the retained Vertical Agreements Block Exemption Regulation (retained VABER) which expires in May 2022. It then recommended that BEIS replace it with a Vertical Agreements Block Exemption Order (VABEO), making certain amendments to the current regime tailored to the needs of UK consumers and businesses. Most respondents to the CMA’s consultation, from across different industries and sectors, agreed with the CMA recommendation to make such a block exemption.

Vertical agreements are for the sale and purchase of goods or services between businesses operating at different levels of the production or distribution chain, for example, between manufacturers and wholesalers or retailers. As they are therefore not between direct competitors, such agreements are generally considered to be benign or pro-competitive.

Wide retail parity obligations are defined as restrictions by reference to any of the supplier’s indirect sales channels (whether online or offline, for example online platforms or other intermediaries), which ensure that the prices or other terms and conditions at which a supplier’s goods or services are offered to end users on a sales channel are no worse than those offered by the supplier on another sales channel.

Time is running out for customers who still need to file their Self Assessment tax return and avoid a penalty, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has warned.

The deadline for submitting tax returns was 31 January 2022 but, this year, HMRC gave customers extra time to complete their 2020 to 2021 tax return. They have until 28 February to file their return to avoid a late filing penalty.

About 12.2 million customers are expected to file a tax return for 2020 to 2021 tax year and more than 10.2 million were received by 31 January.

About 1.5 million customers have just one week left to complete their late tax return.

HMRC has given customers until 1 April to pay their outstanding tax bill or set up a time to pay arrangement to avoid receiving a late payment penalty. Interest has been applied to all outstanding balances since 1 February.

The existing Time to Pay service allows any individual or business who needs it, the option to spread their tax payments over time. Self Assessment taxpayers with up to £30,000 of tax debt can do this online once they have filed their return. Almost 100,000 customers have used this service since April last year, spreading the cost of their tax bill into manageable monthly instalments.

If customers owe more than £30,000, or need longer to pay, they should call the Self Assessment Payment Helpline on 0300 200 3822.

Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said:

There is one week left to complete your tax return if you haven’t done so already. And for anyone who is worried about paying their tax bill, there is support available – search ‘pay my Self Assessment’ on GOV.UK.

From 22 February, customers will be able to make Self Assessment payments quickly and securely through the HMRC app. Customers choosing to make secure Self Assessment payments through the HMRC app can either connect to their bank to make their payments or pay by Direct Debit, personal debit card or corporate or commercial credit or debit card.

A full list of the payment methods customers can use to pay their Self Assessment tax bill is available on GOV.UK.

The 2020/21 tax return covers earnings and payments during the pandemic. Customers will need to declare if they received any grants or payments from the COVID-19 support schemes up to 5 April 2021 on their Self Assessment, as these are taxable, including:

• Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)
• Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
• other COVID-19 grants and support payments such as self-isolation payments, local authority grants and those for the Eat Out to Help Out scheme

The £500 one-off payment for working households receiving tax credits should not be reported in Self Assessment.

It is important that customers check and make any changes to their tax return to make sure any Self-Employment Income Support Scheme or other COVID-19 support payments have been reported correctly in their Self Assessment.

HMRC urges everyone to be alert if they are contacted out of the blue by someone asking for money or personal information. Customers should always type in the full online address www.gov.uk/hmrc to get the correct link for filing their Self Assessment return online securely and free of charge. HMRC sees high numbers of fraudsters emailing, calling or texting people claiming to be from the department. If anyone is in doubt, do not to reply directly to anything suspicious, but contact HMRC straight away and search GOV.UK for ‘HMRC scams’.

10.69 million Self Assessment customers have filed a 2020 to 2021 tax return to date.

The free HMRC app is available on either the App Store for iOS or the Google Play Store for Android. Customers will need their Government Gateway user ID and password to sign into their account for the first time.

Time is running out for customers who still need to file their Self Assessment tax return and avoid a penalty, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has warned.

The deadline for submitting tax returns was 31 January 2022 but, this year, HMRC gave customers extra time to complete their 2020 to 2021 tax return. They have until 28 February to file their return to avoid a late filing penalty.

About 12.2 million customers are expected to file a tax return for 2020 to 2021 tax year and more than 10.2 million were received by 31 January.

About 1.5 million customers have just one week left to complete their late tax return.

HMRC has given customers until 1 April to pay their outstanding tax bill or set up a time to pay arrangement to avoid receiving a late payment penalty. Interest has been applied to all outstanding balances since 1 February.

The existing Time to Pay service allows any individual or business who needs it, the option to spread their tax payments over time. Self Assessment taxpayers with up to £30,000 of tax debt can do this online once they have filed their return. Almost 100,000 customers have used this service since April last year, spreading the cost of their tax bill into manageable monthly instalments.

If customers owe more than £30,000, or need longer to pay, they should call the Self Assessment Payment Helpline on 0300 200 3822.

Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said:

There is one week left to complete your tax return if you haven’t done so already. And for anyone who is worried about paying their tax bill, there is support available – search ‘pay my Self Assessment’ on GOV.UK.

From 22 February, customers will be able to make Self Assessment payments quickly and securely through the HMRC app. Customers choosing to make secure Self Assessment payments through the HMRC app can either connect to their bank to make their payments or pay by Direct Debit, personal debit card or corporate or commercial credit or debit card.

A full list of the payment methods customers can use to pay their Self Assessment tax bill is available on GOV.UK.

The 2020/21 tax return covers earnings and payments during the pandemic. Customers will need to declare if they received any grants or payments from the COVID-19 support schemes up to 5 April 2021 on their Self Assessment, as these are taxable, including:

• Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)
• Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
• other COVID-19 grants and support payments such as self-isolation payments, local authority grants and those for the Eat Out to Help Out scheme

The £500 one-off payment for working households receiving tax credits should not be reported in Self Assessment.

It is important that customers check and make any changes to their tax return to make sure any Self-Employment Income Support Scheme or other COVID-19 support payments have been reported correctly in their Self Assessment.

HMRC urges everyone to be alert if they are contacted out of the blue by someone asking for money or personal information. Customers should always type in the full online address www.gov.uk/hmrc to get the correct link for filing their Self Assessment return online securely and free of charge. HMRC sees high numbers of fraudsters emailing, calling or texting people claiming to be from the department. If anyone is in doubt, do not to reply directly to anything suspicious, but contact HMRC straight away and search GOV.UK for ‘HMRC scams’.

10.69 million Self Assessment customers have filed a 2020 to 2021 tax return to date.

The free HMRC app is available on either the App Store for iOS or the Google Play Store for Android. Customers will need their Government Gateway user ID and password to sign into their account for the first time.