When is an agricultural lease not an agricultural lease? An agricultural lease provides a tenant with various rights, including security of occupation for the agreed length of the lease. That might be for five or 10 years or longer under a fixed duration tenancy or even for the foreseeable future, if the lease is a traditional lease entered into before November 28 2003. However, not every lease of land is an agricultural lease. Whether it is or not depends on the purpose of the lease ...
Employers will often include restrictive covenants in employment contracts to ensure their business interests are protected when an employee leaves. Where the employee is also a shareholder, there may be similar restrictions contained in a separate shareholder’s agreement ...
Figures from Homes for Scotland indicate that there is currently a shortage of almost 100,000 homes in Scotland. According to their most recent figures, 25,000 new homes are needed each year to keep pace with need and demand – and that figure was last met in 2007. Let those figures sink in ...
New legislation means it is more important than ever that organisations have effective anti-bribery measures in place. The dissolution of Parliament took place on 12 April. As part of the 'wash-up' process before this date the Bribery Bill received Royal Assent and will become law throughout the UK later this year ...
The UK’s new safeguard mechanism for international transfers of personal data came into force on 21 March 2022. Organisations that make restricted transfers of personal data should review their data transfer processes now ...
The treatment of women who feel they are being sexually harassed at work has changed significantly as a result of new regulations forcing employers to take more responsibility for the behaviour of their staff. The Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 were implemented in October , overhauling the previous regime ...
Earlier this month the new Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC), Rosemary Agnew, took up her position. Since Kevin Dunion finished his second term at the end of February his Head of Enforcement, Margaret Keyse, was Acting Commissioner until Ms Agnew was able to take up her new post. As you would expect the SIC’s team has carried on the work that Mr Dunion set in place but only time will tell what Ms Agnew’s approach to the role will be ...
In its green paper on corporate governance reform, the Government sought views on measures designed to address "a widespread perception that executive pay has become increasingly disconnected from both the pay of ordinary working people and the underlying long-term performance of companies" ...
The UK Government has put forward for approval by Parliament a new safeguard mechanism for international transfers, known as the International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA), that will impact organisations transferring personal data out of the UK. If approved, the IDTA will apply from 21 March 2022, and we would encourage affected organisations to review their data transfer processes now ...
The ICSA has published new guidance on terms of reference for audit, remuneration, nomination, risk and executive committees, as well as new guidance on matters reserved for the board. The new guidance notes have been revised to reflect the updated editions of the UK Corporate Governance Code (“Code”) and FRC Guidance on Audit Committees published in September 2012 and which apply to all companies with a premium listing with reporting periods beginning on or after 1 October 2012 ...
This month the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) released new guidance for advertisements used to promote in-game purchases. This guidance applies to providers of online gaming services that offer users the opportunity to purchase virtual items in real-time, such as virtual currencies or extra lives ...
Following a consultation process which began in early 2011, the Treasury has finally published its revised Fair Deal for staff pensions’ guidance. The new policy comes into effect immediately and will allow private contractors to participate in public sector pension schemes so that transferring staff can remain members of their existing public sector scheme ...
The European Commission published its proposal for a revised EU Pensions Directive on 27 March 2014. The revised Directive on the “activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision (recast)” (known as“IORP II”) hopes to make those institutions “better governed, more transparent and increasing their cross-border activity, thereby strengthening the internal market” ...
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Bridge Trustees in 2011 (see further here), the Government announced that it would legislate to directly counteract the effect of the judgement and make it clear that benefits under a pension scheme cannot be regarded as money purchase benefits if it is possible for a funding deficit to arise in respect of any of those benefits ...
New law regarding the use of cookies on websites was introduced in the UK in May last year. Broadly speaking, the new law requires a website owner/operator to: - tell users that cookies are used on its website; - explain to users what the cookies are doing; and - obtain users’ explicit consent to store cookies on their device. The Information Commissioner is responsible for enforcing this new law ...
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) recently published a consultation on implementing a ban on the appointment of corporate directors. The proposed ban on appointing corporate directors to the board of UK companies is not new – the statutory provision for this is contained in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (SBEEA) – but this particular provision has not yet been brought into force ...
With Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) one of the discussion themes at ONS this week, the Norwegians will be looking to showcase their planned new CO2 capture plant at the Mongstad refinery. The initial pilot technology centre is expected to be in operation by 2011/12 and eventually the plant will have an annual capacity for handling 100,000 tonnes of carbon per annum ...
Last month, the Dutch competition authority (ACM) cleared a joint agreement among soft-drink suppliers including Coca-Cola to discontinue plastic handles on multipacks to make the packaging more recyclable and reduce plastic. Applying its draft sustainability guidelines, the ACM found that the arrangements did not harm competition given that evidence showed the handles did not play a role in the competitive process and participants remained free to decide on, e.g ...
Cadbury has lost a five-year legal battle with Swiss rival Nestlé. This week the Court of Appeal overturned a previous decision of the High Court that gave Cadbury an exclusive right to the famous purple colour it uses for its chocolate wrappers. Cadbury began marketing Dairy Milk in a pale mauve colour in 1905 but it wasn’t until 1920 that its full range of Dairy Milk became purple ...
If all’s fair in love and war, and business is war, it must follow that all is fair in business. We should therefore not concern ourselves with fairness in our business dealings, but focus on maximising our personal gain, irrespective of the impact of our decisions on others. Adopting the above approach is not only likely to harm you but also your business. People are social beings and have evolved to reward cooperation and punish avarice. Take two individuals - Mr Smith and Mr Jones ...
The Planning etc (Scotland) Act 2006 has placed the National Planning Framework (NPF) – Scotland's national planning strategy - on a statutory footing, to be reviewed every four years. The NPF was published in 2004 to largely widespread approval from industry, political and community figures. The purpose of the NPF was to introduce the Scottish Executive's strategy for the "spatial development of Scotland until 2025" ...
What is Natasha’s Law? Natasha’s Law is the name given to the regulations that came into force on 1 October 2021 and provide new requirements for the labelling of allergens in certain foods. These regulations apply across the entirety of the UK ...
In recent years, NASA has spent millions, if not billions, of dollars developing what they call “US commercial crew space capabilities” – in ordinary terms they want to make it easier to access the International Space Station from Earth. In trying to achieve this aim they have entered into various commercial agreements under the National Aeronatics and Space Act, known as Space Act Agreements (SAAs), instead of using more traditional form commercial contracts ...
On 13 June 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down its unanimous decision in the ongoing case of Association for Molecular Pathology et al v Myriad Genetics, Inc. et al 12-398, 569 US __ (2013). This case is the first brought in the US directly challenging the patentability of human genes and for that reason is extremely important to any entity involved in the biotechnology industry which relies on human genetics research as part of innovation strategy ...
The Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill was recently introduced to the Scottish Parliament. The reforms in the Bill relate to assignation outright or for security purposes of broadly defined “claims” and to fixed security over corporeal (tangible) moveables and intellectual property - and the new fixed security regime is likely to be extended to shares and other incorporeal (intangible) moveables ...
