A summary of the key takeaways from a recent webinar on reducing scope 3 business travel emissions. Shoosmiths is delighted to be sponsoring United Nation Global Compact Network (UNGC) UK’s series of webinars on ‘Reducing Scope 3 Emissions’. On 29 March 2022, our Chairperson, Peter Duff, joined a panel to discuss the challenges associated with, and steps that can be taken to assist, a reduction in business travel emissions ...
On 28 March 2022 the government published its paper Taking charge: the electric vehicle infrastructure strategy1 (Taking Charge) and an accompanying document, Government response to the CMA’s Electric vehicle charging market study (the Response).2 At the current roll-out of approximately 600 public chargepoints installed every month, there will be close to 90,000 chargepoints in the United Kingdom by 2030 ...
The UK's competition authority (CMA) unusually cleared a merger (Sony Music / AWAL) after nine months of investigation. Could a Phase 2 investigation have been avoided? On 16 March 2022 the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued its final report into the completed acquisition by Sony Music Entertainment (Sony Music) of AWAL and Kobalt Neighbouring rights businesses from Kobalt Music Group Limited ...
On 25 February 2022, the High Court handed down its judgment in Corbin and King Ltd v AXA Insurance UK Plc [2022] EWHC 409 (Comm), giving further guidance on business interruption (BI) claims resulting from COVID-19 restrictions. However, permission has now been granted to appeal. The policyholder friendly judgment gives guidance on aggregation and the application of the Supreme Court’s causation reasoning to non-damage denial of access (NDDA) clauses ...
The new Register of Persons Holding a Controlled interest in Land (RCI) will come into force in Scotland on 1 April 2022. The purpose of this article is to highlight the key points of the regulations behind the RCI1 and how they may affect landowners and tenants of registrable leases (being those longer than 20 years) in Scotland ...
Energy efficiency is an important element for the location of data centres. A trade agreement with New Zealand could lead to a growth of demand from UK data holders for data centres in New Zealand. Background The data centre market is affected by numerous complex elements. Some support growth in the United Kingdom, such as the need to ensure United Kingdom data is in UK facilities if data privacy measures cannot be put in place for storage of data abroad ...
6 April 2021 saw the IR35 regime change for large or medium sized private and third sector organisations. As the first year anniversary of these changes approaches, in this and subsequent articles, we consider the impact the changes have had so far. For our first article in the series, we consider whether organisations are applying the rules correctly and what common mistakes are being made ...
Working remotely combined with “The Great Resignation” has raised questions about how employers can best protect their business interests in this new world of work. Rewind a few years and most employees were physically attending the workplace every day, which in turn made it easier for employers to monitor the work being carried out by their employees and ensure that confidential files were locked away safely ...
Earlier this week chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed the contents of his Spring Statement, against a backdrop of economic uncertainty where he referenced the national pandemic recovery and the war in Ukraine. Key announcements made included cutting fuel duty, raising the National Insurance threshold and enhancing the R&D tax credits system for more sectors to stimulate private sector investment. Our experts respond below to the statement at large ...
A new regime The UK has introduced a new regime which, from 4 January 2022, requires purchasers to obtain prior approval for transactions in certain specified sectors ...
Welcome to the COVID-19 Inquiry Spotlight Sessions. Brought to you by the Regulation, Business Crime and Compliance team at UK law firm Shoosmiths, this podcast series will explore the key topics associated with a Public Inquiry. We will help you to understand how the COVID-19 Inquiry might affect you and your business, and we will be joined by special guests who will deliver a specialist viewpoint on some of the topics ...
On 10 March 2022, the Cabinet Office published the long-awaited draft Terms of Reference for the UK COVID-19 Inquiry.1 In this article we consider the implications for businesses impacted by the pandemic and how they may wish to get involved in the Terms’ finalisation. Terms of Reference are critical to a public inquiry as they define its scope and purpose ...
The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act received Royal Assent on 15 March 2022. Its effects will be felt far and wide across the UK real estate industry. We explained in our article Economic Crime Bill – what it means for real estate, that the aim of the new Act is to crack down on foreign criminals using UK property to launder money ...
On 12 August 2020 a tragedy occurred on Scotland’s railways. A passenger train, already turned around due to blockages on the line, derailed. Three people tragically lost their lives. After months of investigation the Rail Accident Investigation Board (“RAIB”) has released its formal report into the incident. The report details a number of failings, which led to the tragedy ...
Parents of children with special educational needs who are moving to further education should consider all options and make sure their local authority sticks to its deadlines, says Shoosmiths’ Guv Samra. The advice from the education law specialist comes as an important deadline looms for young people with Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs)who are transitioning to post 16/19 placements ...
On 14 March 2022 in Philipp v Barclays Bank UK Plc [2022] EWCA Civ 318 the Court of Appeal gave further guidance on the extent of the Quincecare duty owed by banks to their customers. What is a Quincecare duty? It is well established that banks have a duty to use reasonable skill and care in carrying out customers’ orders which includes not complying with instructions if they have reasonable grounds for believing the order was an attempt to misappropriate funds ...
What we know about the cybersecurity risks arising from the Ukraine, steps UK organisations should consider taking now, the insurance position and novel issues that might arise from Ukraine-linked cyber attacks. What has been happening? A few weeks into the war in Ukraine the cybersecurity implications for companies in the UK remain unclear, but some trends are emerging: Initial state sponsored activity seems purely to be targeted by Russian groups at Ukraine and vice versa ...
In association with Macmillan Davies and led by Employment Partner, Emma Morgan and Associate, Lauren Bholé, this webinar focused on the “right to disconnect”. From February 2022, Civil servants in Belgium now have a legal right to disconnect so that they can no longer be contacted by their employer outside of working hours ...
We take a look at the options open for Ukrainian nationals fleeing to come to the UK and what you can do to help. The requirements for each are summarised below: 1. Ukraine Family Scheme This allows the family members of British citizens, people who are settled in the UK, people who hold pre-settled status in the UK under Appendix EU or people with refugee status or humanitarian protection to join their family members in the UK ...
Undertaking post-employment notice pay (“PENP”) calculations when an employee leaves a business can be complex and easy to get wrong. We discuss some of the issues facing employers when carrying out these calculations. Background PENP is relevant to determining the correct tax treatment of termination payments ...
As the world becomes ever more focussed on environmental and climate change issues, so businesses are increasingly concentrating on whether their people are working in ways that best achieve the green credentials many organisations now aspire to. Employment practices and policies can be adjusted or altered in ways that will help organisations positively contribute towards lessening their environmental impact ...
Over 100,000 charitable bequests are made each year. However, every year, over £1 million is left to misnamed charities. This note explains the eight ways that personal representatives can work out who should receive an ambiguous charitable gift. The problem It is not unusual for a testator to misdescribe a charity in their will. The most common mistake is to try to leave money to ‘cancer research’ ...
Following a landmark judgment issued this week, every local council in England must now keep to fixed legal time limits when reviewing the needs of children and young people with special educational needs. The annual review process involving Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans will now be subject to strict timelines following R (L,M, and P, v Devon County Council [2022] EWHC 493 (Admin). EHC plans, which must be reviewed annually, will now have to be reviewed within 12 weeks ...
This week, the Ministry of Justice announced details about a new forward-thinking approach in private law children cases. The pilot scheme is intended to improve the way local authorities, the police and the family court share information to improve the support provided to victims of domestic abuse. The scheme The new approach is being piloted by family courts in Wales and Dorset, in cases dealing with child arrangement, specific issues and prohibited steps orders ...
We consider the first post Lloyd v Google decision considering loss of control damages under the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 and its implications for the future of data and privacy litigation. It suddenly became much more difficult to bring collective privacy claims in England in November last year when Google succeeded in the Lloyd v Google litigation before the UK Supreme Court ...
