The government has published a consultation on implementing the new building control regime for higher-risk buildings under Part 3 of the Building Safety Act 2022. The consultation predominantly focuses on the changes that will be made to the building regulations to implement the new building safety reforms ...
The Building Safety Bill was finally introduced into Parliament on 30 June 2021 with the aim of delivering fundamental reform to the building safety system. The Bill’s progress through Parliament will be closely monitored as the construction industry looks to prepare for the potentially wide-ranging impact of this complex piece of legislation. The Bill was published in draft form in 2020 to enable pre-legislative scrutiny ...
The Charity Commission focuses on charities meeting “public expectation”, but they also need to remain true to their stated purpose, even when doing so may prove controversial. A report on our colonial past The National Trust has acted in accordance with its charitable objects. This shouldn’t be headline news, but it has been for the last six months ...
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 ...
For many HR professionals the responsibility for ensuring that their organisation can continue to employ migrant workers falls squarely at their door. This can prove daunting, especially for those with little or no business-immigration experience ...
Joseph Raczynski joins Paul Caddy to discuss horizon-gazing and what the future might hold. Joseph is a leading technologist and futurist. He speaks globally on subjects like blockchain, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, the Metaverse, NFTs and cybersecurity. Joseph hosts Technology Snippets Today a video podcast series which explores cutting edge technology and innovation ...
Vikas Shah MBE chats to Adam Wagner on the rule of law. Susanna Reid from ITV’s Good Morning Britain calls him “the barrister who kept the legal receipts”. Put simply, Adam knows more about the Covid regulations which upended our lives from March 2020 onwards than arguably anyone else in the country ...
The Supreme Court has handed down its much anticipated decision relating to the coverage of business interruption insurance claims made following the COVID-19 pandemic. A key question was whether the Supreme Court ruling would finally provide the clarity that the expedited test case sought to achieve for both policyholders and insurers. The good news for all is that the Supreme Court has indeed provided much more clarity in relation to most issues ...
Further guidance for insurers and policyholders on business interruption claims is now available following an award made by Lord Mance in Certain Policyholders v China Taiping Insurance (UK) Co Ltd. Whilst the arbitration award will not be binding on the courts, it will no doubt prove persuasive and represents a victory for insurers, with Lord Mance finding no coverage under the denial of access cause in question ...
We are very excited to be supporting the UN Global Compact Network UK’s ‘Transitioning to a Net Zero’ webinar series. The opening webinar, ‘Business Transition to a Net Zero and Resilient World’ took place on Thursday, 1 July 2021 during London Climate Action Week. The webinar saw government representatives, experts and business leaders discuss their vision of a net zero, climate resilient world, and the actions they are taking to get there ...
Despite the risk of ‘greenwashing’ and some calls for business to row back from ‘non-essential’ commitments to focus on the bottom line of shareholder return, surely on a small planet of limited and dwindling resources which is getting ever hotter, a focus on ESG remains the general direction of travel, and Planet and People continue to count, not just Profit ...
A lot hinged on the answer to the following question for thousands of businesses and organisations across the UK. When is equipment used at work not work equipment for the purposes of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998? It was put before the House of Lords at a hearing on 4 February 2009, exactly one year after the same question was considered by the Court of Appeal ...
The Bribery Bill has finally become law, introducing a completely new regime with which British businesses will need to comply. The old law has been widely criticised, with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development stating recently that it was ‘characterised by complexity and uncertainty’ ...
A breakdown of the ICO’s recent guidance on how to comply with the UK’s data protection regime when making live marketing calls. The ambiguous lyrics from this popular song have left me confused ...
As the financial services sector has developed and adopted technology, there has been a significant growth in Deferred Payment Credit, more commonly referred to as ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (“BNPL”) by consumers. Demonstrating the scale of growth, news outlets have recently reported that over £10 billion has been lent to consumers by BNPL companies in the last three years ...
Purchasing a yacht should be a pleasurable experience given that the craft in question is most likely to be used for the owner’s leisure pursuits. Yachts, however, whether they are second-hand, new, large or small, have one thing in common. They are expensive. However, many purchasers whether they are paying £10,000 or £1,000,000 are sometimes less cautious than perhaps they should be when buying what is in effect a “toy” ...
Purchasing a yacht should be a pleasurable experience given that the craft in question is most likely to be used for the owner’s leisure pursuits. Yachts, however, whether they are second-hand, new, large or small, have one thing in common. They are expensive. However, many purchasers whether they are paying £10,000 or £1,000,000 are sometimes less cautious than perhaps they should be when buying what is in effect a “toy” ...
With the next August public holiday on the horizon, we look at what can be a complicated area in calculating bank holiday entitlement for individuals who work part-time and/or on compressed hours. Under the Working Time Directive (WTD), which is now retained EU law, a worker has the right to a minimum of 4 weeks’ annual leave (or 20 days for a full-time worker). The Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR), which implement the WTD into UK law, provide an additional 1 ...
Since receiving Royal Assent on 28 April 2022, the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) has continued to lumber along - coming into effect in phases and throwing up legal complications as it goes. The government has therefore been required to create secondary legislation – regulations - to seek to clarify and untangle various provisions in the BSA. The Act is reliant on regulations to provide the detail of many of its provisions ...
On 15 June 2023, three groups namely the Centre for Progressive Policy (CPP), Pregnant Then Screwed (PTS) and Women in Data, published their collaborative report on the social and economic impact associated with extended paternity leave and pay. Currently in the UK, the statutory entitlement to paternity leave is capped at two weeks, with the weekly rate for paternity pay amounting to the lower of £172.48 per week or 90% of average weekly earnings ...
The Court of Appeal has given some much-needed clarity on this issue in the recent decision of Abbey Healthcare (Mill Hill) Limited v Simply Construct (UK) LLP [2022]. In a majority judgment, the Court of Appeal reversed the first instance decision and held that the collateral warranty in question was a construction contract within the meaning of s.104(1) of the Housing Grants, Construction & Regeneration Act 1996 (the Construction Act) ...
The High Court has considered emergency response measures affecting the aviation sector. In two recent cases, aircraft lessors tried to enforce their lessees’ payment obligations, but were met with arguments that the leases had been frustrated. A contract is frustrated when an event arises after its formation and renders performance impossible, illegal or radically different from that which the parties had contemplated ...
The Bill requires online retailers to take 'all reasonable steps' to avoid selling age-restricted products to those underage. It also requires annual advice from government to retailers setting out what constitutes 'all reasonable steps' ...
This article looks at how leaders can develop psychological safety within teams and how they can encourage individuals to speak up when they need help or when mistakes have been made. Failure, or the importance of creating psychological safety in the workplace? Nobody likes to fail. It’s not comfortable, it’s embarrassing, it induces anxiety, sleepless nights and all sorts of other tell-tale symptoms. Unfortunately for leaders, many of these symptoms remain hidden ...
On 21 November, Waters Technology published an opinion piece on the use by cloud providers of hardware which, under previous policies, would have been retired. They are doing this due to exponential growth in the demand for their services – not profits. On the same day, it published an article highlighting the work the DTCC has been undertaking with AWS to produce technical standards “to enhance multi-region resiliency”, which were published on 20 November ...
