There has recently been a further case on long-term sickness and a worker’s right to accrue untaken annual holiday leave ( Fraser v Southwest London St George’s Mental Health Trust ). Mrs Fraser was on long-term sick leave after she injured her...

Creating a commercial database and keeping it up to date is an expensive business and owners of such databases often take precautions to make sure they are not used without permission. One method of doing this is for the owners of databases to plant...

When a supplier to a marquee company was not paid for goods it had supplied, the directors told the supplier that the company was waiting for an insurance claim to be settled, after which payments would be made as usual. In reality, there was no insurance...

The Supreme Court has denied HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) the right of appeal in a tax case involving a series of transactions that were carried out for no commercial purpose but which led to a tax saving by the taxpayer. The decision represents a blow for...

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (now superseded by the Equality Act 2010 ), when deciding whether or not an employer took sufficient steps to comply with its duty to make reasonable adjustments to remove a disadvantage faced by a disabled...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have announced that the Mortgage Verification Scheme (MVS), which was developed in co-operation with the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the Building Societies Association and run as a pilot scheme in March 2010, is now fully...

The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 , which came into force on 26 May 2011, made changes to the rules that apply to websites using cookies and similar technologies to remember a user’s preferences....

The Bribery Act 2010 came into force on 1 July 2011. Under Section 2 of the Act, it is an offence for a person to request, agree to receive or accept a financial or other advantage intending that, in consequence, a relevant function or activity should be...

In Williamson & Soden Solicitors v Briars , the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considered the employment status of a solicitor who was described as a partner of the firm and whose remuneration was by way of a ‘guaranteed profit share’...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have announced that, from 1 January 2012, supplies made by employers under salary sacrifice schemes (schemes whereby an employee accepts a lower salary in return for receiving certain benefits) will be treated as taxable...

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has reported a noticeable increase in calls to its helpline from businesses that inadvertently included on their websites images that are protected by copyright and subsequently received demands for payment from the...

It is common for service charges to be paid ‘on account’ of the annual cost, based on estimates, and a final account to be made up some time after the year end, based on the actual costs incurred. However, not all landlords are diligent about...

There are generally strict time limits that apply when presenting a claim for unfair dismissal to the Employment Tribunal (ET). Normally, a claim must be lodged before the end of a three-month period beginning with the effective date of termination (EDT)....

The penalties for engaging in anti-competitive behaviour are very substantial but, recognising that cartel (price-fixing) behaviour is difficult to detect, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has a ‘leniency programme’, which operates to give...

The Government is proposing to integrate the operation of the Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions systems, as announced in the 2011 Budget. Following an initial consultation with businesses and other interested parties, to gather evidence on the...

When an elderly woman passed away, her daughter, who was her personal representative, realised that some of her late mother’s land was occupied unlawfully by three people. She brought an action against them , seeking to recover possession of the land...

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has issued for consultation proposals for introducing fees for those wishing to lodge a claim with an Employment Tribunal (ET) or an appeal with the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). Currently, the system is free to use and in...

In July, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced that it had applied to intervene in four cases due to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights, all of which were brought by Christian employees who claimed to be victims of religious...

When one business uses the trade marks of another, an action may be able to be brought for trade mark infringement and possibly also for ‘passing off’ – the term given to the situation in which a business attempts to profit by presenting...

Company liquidations have edged up in the first quarter of 2011, with 4,121 companies being subject to winding-up orders. Compulsory liquidations fell by more than 10 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2010, but creditors’ voluntary...

Every year the firm's Christmas party presents employees with the chance to relax and enjoy the holiday season. However, it is easy to forget that an employer owes its employees certain obligations, even outside work, when the employer has organised the...

If you are used to taking part of your company income by way of dividends (a common tax planning device, the main advantage of which is savings on National Insurance Contributions), but you require time to pay your taxes because of cash-flow problems,...

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published provisional fatal injury statistics for the year April 2010 to March 2011 . These show that the number of workers killed in Britain was 171, compared with an all time low of 147 deaths in the previous...

When does a commercial property become vacant under a lease agreement? This was the question considered in a recent hearing in the Court of Appeal . The appeal was brought by haulage and storage firm NYK Logistics (UK) Ltd., a former tenant of Netherlands...

An advertising and media company run by a Mr Casey sought to register the trade mark ‘Carbon Virgin’. The application was opposed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Enterprises Ltd. (VEL) on the grounds of the similarity of the proposed trade mark...

A recent survey of businesses carried out by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales has found that, in general, the availability of finance for business from banks and other providers of external finance has eased slightly but is still...

Following its Resolving Workplace Disputes consultation and the Red Tape Challenge review of employment law, the Government has announced its proposals for reform. The aim is to replace overly burdensome regulation whilst safeguarding workers’ rights,...

Operators of Amusement With Prizes (AWP) machines who receive VAT refunds as a result of a review carried out by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the wake of a court reverse in 2009 are advised to ensure that they are able to repay the refund if necessary,...

Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR), which came into force on 1 October 2011, agency workers are entitled to have the same basic terms and conditions of employment as if they had been employed directly by the hirer once they have completed a...

MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) founder Martin Lewis has won summary judgment in the High Court – against a cold calling company – for infringement of his trade marks. This means that Mr Lewis does not have to run to the expense of a full trial on...

A developer who completely demolished a property when he only had permission to demolish part of it has landed himself with a fine and legal costs totalling more than £120,000. The developer has been given a year to pay the £80,000 fine and the...

Two companies have been fined a total of £450,000 and ordered to pay costs after health and safety failures led to a maintenance worker falling to his death. Christopher Booker, 49, was working at Aberthaw Power Station when the accident happened in...

The law relating to the fiduciary duties of directors is stricter than many company directors might think, as a recent case illustrates . The director of a company was given the loan of ‘a second-hand excavator and dumper’ for his personal use,...

News that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are to create a dedicated team of investigators to ‘target’ restaurants suspected of evading their tax liabilities is no real surprise: the sector offers them rich pickings in terms of under-declared...

The Supreme Court has handed down its decision in a case concerning the employment status of 20 valeters who provided car-cleaning services to motor retailers and auctioneers ( Autoclenz Ltd. v Belcher and others ). The valeters had written contracts with...

On 1 October 2011, changes to the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (normally called the Construction Act) came into force. The changes are contained in Part 8 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 ...

Following Lord Justice Jackson’s report on his review of civil litigation costs, a new law has been introduced to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to bring actions to protect their patent and design rights. The Patents County...

As reported previously, the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) as they currently stand are not in accord with recent decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the interpretation of the Working Time Directive with regard to the interaction of...

A covenant can either represent a commitment to do something or a commitment not to do something. In either case, the party faced with a breach of the covenant has a range of options available to them for obtaining a legal remedy, one of which is to obtain a...

Readers are reminded that an application to reclaim VAT incurred in another EU country can be made to that country via HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) provided the claimant business is registered for VAT in the UK and is not VAT registered, or does not have to...

Employers are reminded that new National Minimum Wage (NMW) rates came into force on 1 October 2011. The revised rates are as follows: The adult hourly rate of the NMW has increased from £5.93 to £6.08; The development rate (which...

When a licensing application cannot be heard because insufficient information has been supplied relating to the primary use of the premises, the licensing authority must decide whether to grant the licence and deal with any issues through enforcement action...

The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 , which came into force on 26 May 2011, make certain changes to the laws that cover direct marketing by electronic means. Serious breaches of the rules surrounding the...

Earlier this year, the Government published a consultation document entitled ‘Resolving Workplace Disputes’. This sought views on various measures aimed at increasing employers’ confidence to take on more workers, encouraging the early...

The Government is calling on businesses to have their say in the latest phase of its Employment Law Review. From today until 19 October, the Government's ‘Red Tape Challenge’ is focusing on more than 160 different employment-related...

An employee wishing to bring a claim of unfair dismissal must do so before the end of the three-month period commencing with the effective date of termination (EDT) of their employment. Where a period of notice is given, the EDT is the date on which this...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have won a major battle in the Supreme Court which may have severe implications for tax planning exercises. HMRC have persuaded the Court that a tax avoidance scheme, which was based on the wide definitions that apply to the...

Directors of companies are entitled to any information they reasonably request about the company of which they are a director. It is therefore normal for a director to possess a great deal of confidential information about the company. Directors are also...

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has issued a consultation aimed at simplifying the licensing laws for events attended by fewer than 5,000 people. Currently, events organisers have to apply and sometimes pay for licences for events which pose...

If a claim is not defended, is a person indemnifying the defendant required to meet the claim in full? This question was at the core of a recent legal case involving a property development. The developer contracted with a subcontractor to carry out...

Limited liability partnerships (LLPs) are becoming increasingly common. For example, all of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms have been LLPs for several years now. Recently, the acrimonious bust-up of an LLP led to one of the ex-members suing the...

When it comes to contesting tax assessments, the playing field is far from level, as a recent VAT case shows. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) made assessments on a trader based on discrepancies between recorded sales and cash in the tills on two visits. The...

A recent case has confirmed that a clause in a contract which absolves one party from paying the other in the event that the second party becomes insolvent is invalid as it infringes the ‘anti-deprivation’ principle. The principle exists to...

Following several suspicious deaths at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Rebecca Leighton, a nurse working at the hospital, was accused of tampering with medical products, arrested and charged. She was consequently banned from working as a nurse by the...

When an insulation manufacturer created a road show to demonstrate its products in comparison with those of a competitor, there was always likely to be trouble. The comparison consisted of a series of fire tests, which were intended to demonstrate the...

Businesses are reminded that new reporting arrangements for workplace health and safety incidents commenced today (Monday 12 September). Only fatal and major injuries and incidents should now be reported by phone to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)....

Whilst the Internet, tweeting, blogging and the like have revolutionised the way we communicate with one another, some estimates report that misuse of social networking tools by employees at work costs the British economy billions of pounds a year and...

A recent case ( Gosden v Lifeline Project Ltd. ) demonstrates that it is important for employers to have in place an Internet usage policy and to ensure employees are aware that disciplinary action may be taken over any conduct capable of harming the...

Building contracts often involve a multiplicity of documents, which sometimes have conflicting terms. In such cases, the liabilities under the contracts will depend on which of the various contractual terms has primacy over the others. In a recent...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have announced a probe into under-recording of takings and cash tips at restaurants of all sorts, commenting that payments made in cash for sales and tips make tax evasion a high risk. The move forms part of HMRC’s plan...

Copyright is a right that exists as soon as you create the copyright material. You do not have to apply for it. There are some exceptions to copyright, but unless one of these applies, anyone else using your material without your permission is infringing...

When a claim for damages is made on the basis of ‘loss of a chance’, having good quality expert evidence is essential. Most people know that it is possible to claim damages, where appropriate, for the loss of future earnings. Normally, such...

The Government has accepted all the recommendations made in the recent review of health and safety regulation, ‘Common Sense, Common Safety’, and announced a package of measures designed to support its growth agenda and to ease the regulatory...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) look carefully at the documentation supporting all investment schemes that have a tax advantage, such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). One of the rules for an investment to qualify for EIS relief is that the...

If your property has been damaged in the recent riots, you may well find that your insurance policy will not cover your losses. Most policies exclude damage resulting from 'riot', which in law, means when 12 or more people are present at the disturbance. If...

New developments require planning permission, as is well known, and so do projects that affect the environment. But can demolition of an existing building be considered to be a project affecting the environment, thus meaning planning permission is required? ...

A recent trade mark case has confirmed that a trade mark can be infringed when the sound of the mark is infringed, as opposed to the mark itself. The case arose when the international toy manufacturer Hasbro alleged that its trade mark...

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has issued guidance for employers and employees on coping with the effects of the riots which have recently erupted in London and in other major cities across the UK. The focus of the advice is on...

A recent case in the Court of Appeal has demonstrated that terms agreed by email can amount to a contract despite a formal contract referred to in the emails remaining unsigned. The case concerned a commodities trader and a fuel storage company that had...

The Government has announced that as part of its ongoing review of employment law, aimed at eliminating unnecessary ‘red tape’, it will consider in detail the case for reforming: Compensation for Discrimination Whilst there need to be remedies...

When a document contains errors, the court will often act to ensure that commercial common sense dictates its interpretation. In a recent case, a farmer sought to avoid an estate rentcharge for roads and sewers on the farm estate when the covenants in the...

VAT penalties are not set at a level which provides compensation to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), but are intended to penalise the taxpayer’s error, as is illustrated by the decision of the First-Tier Tribunal in a case in which a careless mistake,...

The Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 , which came into force on 26 May 2011, make certain changes to the laws that cover direct marketing by electronic means. Serious breaches of the rules surrounding the...

If an employee is dismissed following an unfair redundancy selection process, the level of any compensatory award can be reduced if the employer can show that the employee would have been dismissed even if the correct procedures had been followed. This is...

A recent decision of the European Court of Justice will come as good news for hard-pressed hoteliers and has led to HM Revenue and Customs issuing new guidance on deposits. The decision confirms that there is no relationship between a deposit taken for a...

From 6 April 2011, the Competition Act 1998 has been extended to cover agreements made with regard to land. Such agreements were previously excluded from the scope of the Act. The Act seeks to prohibit agreements etc. that prevent, restrict or distort...

Trade marks can come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can include names and numbers – but cannot, says the European Court of Justice (ECJ), include a number which is merely descriptive. The decision followed an attempt to register as a Community...

The faltering steps the economy is taking towards recovery seem to be breeding a degree of overconfidence on the part of some businesses, but there is no reason to abandon good credit control practice. According to a recent report from Creditsafe, more than...

Whilst the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) operate to protect the employment law rights of employees when there is a relevant transfer of a business or part of a business, Regulation 8(7) provides that where...

A landlord’s attempt to obtain a rent based on the uplifted value of a property was rebuffed by the court because a term in the lease, which was worded in such a way that the rent set by the rent reviews would not take into account improvements made...

Avoiding penalties for under-declarations of output VAT is a tricky business, even when the mistakes are innocently made. The VAT legislation allows penalties to be forgiven when there is a ‘reasonable excuse’, but HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)...

The Bribery Act 2010 comes into force today (1 July 2011). The implementation of the Act, originally scheduled for April, was delayed to allow time for the guidance on it to be finalised. Section 7 of the Act makes it an offence for a commercial...

When considering legal action regarding material which is on the Internet, often one of the most difficult questions one has to face is that of where the material is ‘made available’. Since a website can be physically situated anywhere, where...

A recent case in the Court of Appeal ( Tilson v Alstom Transport ) dealt with the application of the ‘necessity’ test for implying a contract of employment between an agency worker and the end-user business where the worker is fully integrated...

There are hundreds – possibly thousands – of companies listed as ‘dormant’ at Companies House and often these are retained rather than wound up because although they do not trade, they do contain assets. For more than a quarter of a...

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has the power to apply for an order banning a person from being a director in cases in which competition law is breached. Orders are granted under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 and are issued when the...

A manufacturing company based in Wigan has been fined £12,500 and ordered to pay costs of £1,703 after a worker lost part of his index finger whilst operating a drilling machine. The 46-year-old employee was drilling holes through an iron bar...

A tenant that served a break notice on its lease to the wrong person had a lucky escape recently when the court ruled that the notice was valid because the landlord’s agent had accepted it and this had the effect of waiving the defects in serving it....

Keeping company records up to date is not always a top priority for the directors of smaller companies. However, failing to keep the shareholders’ register up to date can have a downside if a share transfer has occurred but the new owner’s name...

In a recent case , firms which used trade marks to which they were not entitled felt the wrath of the court. The case concerned the National Guild of Removers & Storers (NGRS), a trade association for businesses in the removal and storage industry. NGRS...

The guidance relating to the tax legislation that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) use to determine whether a contractor who uses a limited company to carry out contracts should be treated as employed by the end-user client is contained in HMRC leaflet IR35. ...

The Government’s review of the operation of health and safety legislation in the UK, 'Common Sense – Common Safety', recommended that the risk assessment procedures for low hazard workplaces, such as many offices and shops, should be simplified...

It is often considered that the sorts of disclosures that a company must make to regulatory authorities or in its annual accounts are not matters that need to be given close attention. However, where the failure to disclose such information is significant,...

Property company Daejan Investments Ltd. has failed in its bid to overturn Tribunal decisions concerning repair works carried out at the company’s Queens Mansions property in Muswell Hill, London. The recent Court of Appeal ruling will cost Daejan...

The scheme whereby the names of employers who breach National Minimum Wage (NMW) legislation are published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) came into effect on 1 January 2011. The aims of the scheme are to deter employers who would...

The Supreme Court has ruled that a director of a company that was itself the corporate director of a second company was not a de facto director of the second company. He was not therefore liable for the misuse of the second company’s assets, if his...

Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are the pictorial means by which computer users can interact with their machines and, as such, they are often designed with great care and at great expense. It is no surprise, therefore, that the creators of GUIs wish to...

Bribery is coming under increasing attention following the passing of the Bribery Act 2010 , under which bribery is a criminal act. Whilst implementation of the Act, which was passed under the previous administration, has been delayed so that the Government...

A committed Spiritualist has failed in his attempt to persuade the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) that his dismissal from the post of Special Constabulary Trainer was unlawful discrimination under the Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 ( ...

Who has the right to the airspace above a flat? This question was at the centre of a recent legal dispute involving a block of flats. The block of flats was wider at the bottom than on the upper floors, narrowing at the 6th. The 6th floor tenant obtained...

The recession has brought many changes to the way HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) deal with taxpayers. A generally more aggressive approach on the part of HMRC has coincided with the much-touted ‘time to pay’ agreements for businesses experiencing...

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has published guidance for employers and those in the recruitment sector on the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR), which come into force on 1 October 2011. The AWR will give agency workers the right...

As part of its comprehensive review of employment legislation, the Government has published a consultation document, ‘Resolving Workplace Disputes’. This seeks views on measures designed to improve the Employment Tribunal (ET) system and to...

The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) may give tenants the basis of a valid defence against a possession order sought against them. This was the ruling of the Supreme Court in a case in which a council sought to ‘demote’ the tenancy of a tenant as...

European Directives on comparative advertising based on price differences have been clarified, following preliminary rulings from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in a case referred by the French commercial courts. The case was brought before the...

Input VAT is normally only available for deduction with respect to motor cars in very limited circumstances and subject to extremely tight criteria. One of the exceptions is where a car is used wholly for private hire (e.g. a taxi or a self-drive hire car). ...

Employers are reminded that the Employment Equality (Repeal of Retirement Age Provisions) Regulations 2011 came into force on 6 April 2011. This means that the last date on which an employer can lawfully notify an employee of a retirement dismissal using...

In summer 2010, two children died after becoming trapped in electrically powered gates. The accident happened in each case because their presence at the closing edge was not detected and the closing force of the gate when they obstructed it was too great. ...

A survey of business confidence from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, based on the last quarter of 2010, shows a sharp decline, with confidence amongst those in the production industry having fallen more sharply than that in...

When copyright is licensed, use of the copyright material is limited to that contemplated by the parties at the time the licence is created. This decision of the Court of Appeal has implications for many users of licensed material. The case arose when a...

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published for consultation a proposed amendment to the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR). This follows a recommendation in the recent Government-commissioned...

Over the years, a number of ‘tax-efficient’ methods of giving remuneration have been developed, such as Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) and Employer-Funded Unapproved Retirement Benefit Schemes (EFURBS). The Government has recently published...

A recent decision of the Employment Tribunal (ET) illustrates that you should think carefully before pressing the email ‘send’ button on what you regard as a private communication made out of working hours. If the email contains material that...

The Government has accepted recommendations from the Low Pay Commission (LPC) and announced that the National Minimum Wage (NMW) will increase by 15p an hour to £6.08 in October 2011. The statutory wage for those aged 18 to 20 years will increase by...

Following the introduction of the Equality Act 2010 , the Equality and Human Rights Commission has produced statutory Codes of Practice on employment; services, public functions and associations; and equal pay. The Codes set out what the legislation...

A group of tenants who sought to acquire the freehold of the property they occupy met with failure recently , after the Court of Appeal found that the notice served on their landlord was invalid because it was not correctly signed by one of the tenants. ...

Following the announcement in last June's budget of 'National Insurance (NI) holidays' for new businesses, HM Revenue and Customs have now published a Technical Note detailing the conditions of the scheme. In order for the NI holiday to apply, the new...

The Government has announced that the right to request time to train will not be extended this April to employees of small and medium-sized businesses. In April 2010, the right was introduced for employees in organisations with 250 or more employees. It was...

Clauses limiting liability under contracts have always been contentious, so a recent decision is to be welcomed because it sets out clearly the limitations which apply to exclusion clauses. The case involved GB Gas Holdings (Centrica) and Accenture, which...

The High Court recently concluded that a property sale could not be subject to an agreement made two decades previously, as the circumstances of the transaction were not envisaged by the original agreement. The agreement related to a building divided into...

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled ( Pinewood Repro Ltd. v Page ) that for consultation during a redundancy selection process to be fair, an employee should be provided with sufficient information in order to be able to challenge his or her...

A recent case illustrates that insurers will often seek to avoid paying claims under their policies even in circumstances where they would normally be expected to be liable. The case involved a processing plant which supplied the claimant, a pet food...

All the positive publicity generated about ‘time to pay’ agreements has increasingly been shown to be misplaced as new research shows that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are now leading the way in bringing insolvency proceedings. Recent research...

A compromise agreement is a legally binding agreement by which an employee undertakes to refrain from instigating Employment Tribunal (ET) proceedings against his or her employer or, if proceedings have already commenced, to discontinue them, in return for...

The Court of Appeal recently concluded that a potential property buyer was able to rescind the purchase contract owing to a defect in the title to the property concerned. The buyer had contracted to acquire the property, which was sold at auction, with...

The Government has announced that from April 2011 the maximum pension contribution which will attract full tax relief is being restricted to £50,000 per year and the lifetime allowance (LA) will be reduced to £1.5 million from April 2012. Where...

When a contract contains a ‘penalty clause’ for breach of the contract, the clause will not be enforceable if it is punitive, rather than a genuine attempt to compensate the other party based on an estimate of the loss they would incur as a...

Can an employer sack an employee for gross misconduct without breaching its contract of employment with the employee? This question came before the Court of Appeal in the case of Dunn and another v AAH Ltd . Stephen Dunn had previously been the Managing...

The Court of Appeal has confirmed that when a local authority has obtained a liability order to claim unpaid council tax and wishes to enforce it using insolvency proceedings, the authority does not have to do so within six years of the granting of the...

The Digital Economy Act 2010 aims to combat the seeming tsunami of copyright infringement on the Internet. In principle, the way the Act will do this is simple. When a copyright owner advises an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that a website it hosts is...

A case which recently came before the High Court demonstrates the importance of taking care over the service of documents, if only to prevent costly litigation over whether a document was validly served. In the case concerned, a construction dispute was...

The Government has now published draft regulations abolishing the Default Retirement Age (DRA) of 65, which was introduced by the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006. The Employment Equality (Repeal of Retirement Provisions) Regulations 2011 are due...

If your business has followed the common practice of giving trade samples, your VAT returns will have been prepared on the basis that a single sample could be supplied to a person as a VAT-free supply but where a larger number of samples was given, output...

When a development plan is passed which should have been subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) but was not, does the granting of a retrospective consent for EIA development have force or is the planning authority obliged to take action against...

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has published two draft documents, on which it has recently held a consultation, aimed at helping businesses and company directors comply with competition law. The first document, How Your Business Can Achieve Compliance ,...

The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland has ruled ( Martin v Southern Health and Social Care Trust ) that a nurse was not ‘on call’, for the purposes of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR), during unpaid rest breaks that were at risk of...

A recent case has illustrated that, when it comes to trade marks, first impressions are important. In the case concerned, a firm sought to oppose a trade mark application by another firm which has a similar name and was in a similar business. The firm...

The core provisions of the Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1 October. The Act largely consolidates existing discrimination law, which had previously been found in a number of different pieces of legislation. One of the changes made by the Act is to...

'Without prejudice’ communications, made when negotiating legal disputes in order to aid agreement, are not normally admissible in court. The idea behind them is to allow the parties to explore possible areas of agreement and make suggestions and...

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published key annual figures for the year 2009/2010. The statistics show that: 152 workers were killed at work, a rate of 0.5 per 100,000 workers; 121,430 other injuries to employees were reported under...

As heralded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s announcement in the June 2010 Budget, the standard rate of VAT rose to 20 per cent on 4 January 2011. HM Revenue and Customs have published guidance on the change ....

As part of its reform programme to save public money, whilst at the same time increasing the transparency and accountability of public bodies, the Government has announced plans to merge the Competition Commission and the competition functions of the Office...

The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2010 details the maximum amounts of compensation employment tribunals can award, which change annually in line with inflation. The Order was laid before Parliament on 10 December 2010 and applies where the...

In order to prevent smaller firms from being deterred from litigating claims over intellectual property rights because of the costs involved, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced that from 1 October 2010 the limit of recoverable costs in an action in...

According to a recent economic report from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, micro-businesses do not share the optimism of mid-sized businesses over growth prospects for the next two years. The survey found that only 56 per cent...

The much publicised sacking of Sky Sports presenter Andy Gray serves as a salutary reminder to employees and employers alike that attitudes change and sexist banter is simply not acceptable. Mr Gray, who served as assistant to Ron Atkinson when he was the...

The Government has announced its intention to abolish, by 1 October 2011, the Default Retirement Age (DRA) of 65 contained in the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 . Meanwhile, a preliminary ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding a...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have issued three new ‘toolkit’ guides to help taxpayers reduce the risk of submitting an incorrect tax return. Although primarily aimed at tax advisers and agents, the toolkits are a useful reference guide for any...

The Government has confirmed that the Default Retirement Age (DRA) will be abolished, in line with earlier announcements on the subject. Employment Relations Minister Edward Davey said, “Retirement should be a matter of choice rather than compulsion...

The Information Commissioner has served the first monetary penalties for serious breaches of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). In the first case, Hertfordshire County Council was issued with a penalty of £100,000 for two serious incidents where...

The Government has announced that the Additional Paternity Leave Regulations 2010 will be introduced according to the timetable proposed by the previous Government. The Regulations will allow new parents greater flexibility as to how they make use of the...

Loss of light can be a major irritation and the law provides two remedies where it occurs. The usual remedy is for the developer of the structure responsible for the loss of light to make a payment to the person whose property’s light is impaired. The...

Licensees are reminded that it is now compulsory to ensure that an age verification policy is in place and that it applies to any person who appears to be under the age of 18 years. Any such person is to be required to produce, on request, identification...

A case involving a ‘multiple shares’ company, in which different classes of shares were created, with different rights and varying dividends paid to the shareholders over time, illustrates the baleful look that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) give...

One of the prime objectives of the due diligence process carried out by the prospective buyer of a business is to ensure that there are no skeletons in the cupboard of the business being bought. Warranties and indemnities are important safeguards, of course,...

A recent case highlights the importance of making sure that procedural issues are dealt with correctly in the giving of formal notices. When a tenant wished to terminate its lease, it served the relevant notice on the landlord. At least, that is what it...

When a claim is made to the Employment Tribunal (ET), the ET reaches a decision based on an examination of the facts before it. An appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) can only be on a point of law. The EAT’s job is to identify any flaws in...

With over 300,000 businesses now having made ‘time to pay’ arrangements with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the fear is that businesses that are insolvent are using such arrangements to hide their precarious financial status. With HMRC said to...

Virtually all contracts contain provisions which allow the parties concerned to cancel the contract in the event that the other party breaches it. However, with many contracts being complex and imposing a variety of obligations of varying importance on the...

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that allowing an employee to leave before the expiry of his or her notice period does not, in itself, affect the effective date of termination (EDT) for the purposes of whether a claim of unfair dismissal was...

Getting into business is easy. Getting out of business is often where the real problems start. That is why it makes sense to have a partnership agreement (or a shareholders’ agreement if the business is a company) in place from day one. A...

From 1 January 2011, the National Minimum Wage (NMW) Regulations will be changed in order to close a loophole whereby some Employment Businesses and umbrella companies operate travel and subsistence schemes for temporary workers in order to save on tax and...

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) standard agreement forms have recently been updated. The new forms replace the 2007 versions and are available from the RIBA bookshop ....

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has upheld the principle that ‘without prejudice’ communications are not permitted as evidence in court except in very clearly defined circumstances. Without prejudice communications are those which take...

A recent case in the High Court serves as a reminder of the importance of making sure all contracts are carefully drafted. The case was surprising, mainly because it appeared unlikely that anyone involved in the finalisation of the contract had read it...

Valuation, as any valuer will tell you, is an imprecise art. Claims against valuers for negligent valuations are therefore notoriously difficult to sustain. Recently, the court heard a claim brought by investors in hotels that a valuer had neglected to...

An employer whose bonus scheme for sales staff was not tightly worded enough was recently left to count the cost after an appearance in the Court of Appeal . The employer hired a salesperson on a contract which included bonuses for meeting sales targets....

The first charge of corporate manslaughter since the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into force was brought against Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Ltd., an engineering consultancy based in Gloucestershire. The company was...

Earlier in the year, OFCOM held a consultation on a draft initial obligations code of practice designed to reduce copyright infringement on the Internet. The code, entitled ‘Online Infringement of Copyright and the Digital Economy Act 2010 ’...

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has reaffirmed ( Todd v Strain and others ) that when there is a ‘relevant transfer’ under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE), the obligation under Regulation...

It is not often that decisions are quashed on the basis that the court in which a case was heard got the facts wrong, but a recent planning case shows that it can occur. The case concerned a planning application which related to two sides of a property....

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has published revised guidance on Competition Disqualification Orders (CDOs), which are orders under which company directors are disqualified from acting as directors where the company of which they are a director is in...

A London accountant has recently been jailed after pocketing £11 million of clients’ money. The accountant used a simple technique – he submitted false returns for his clients, which led to refunds of tax and VAT being received. His...

The use of questionnaires about job applicants' general health and similar issues before a job offer is made - including before selecting a pool of applicants from whom the successful candidate will be chosen - is prohibited under Section 60 of the ...

A recent case highlights the importance of getting standard terms in contracts right. It involved a hotel group, which entered into a contract with a computer software firm specialising in software for managing hotels. A standard term in the software...

When you do business with someone else, it is important to agree the applicable terms and conditions – merely exchanging terms can be a recipe for dispute, as a recent case shows. The case involved a US company, which ordered goods from a British...

The Effective Date of Termination (EDT) of an employment contract is of critical importance when determining whether or not a claim of unfair dismissal is presented to the Employment Tribunal (ET) within the three-month time limit allowed. In Heaven v...

A tenant wishing to vacate premises by terminating its lease should read the break clauses in the lease carefully and comply fully with them: failing to do so can prove to be an expensive mistake. A recent case dealt with a dispute over a notice to...

A director of a Staffordshire refrigeration company was recently jailed for 44 months after pleading guilty to charges of false accounting, fraud and theft. The man had been perpetrating a fraud against the company he worked for, which involved falsifying...

As part of its review of legislation, in order to reduce any unnecessary burden of regulation on businesses, the Government has carried out a consultation on the right of employees to request time to undergo training. The right was introduced by the ...

Two landlords were recentlly successful in persuading the High Court that a Corporate Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), under which they stood to lose the benefit of a guarantee for their rent, was ‘unfairly prejudicial’ to them as defined by...

According to a survey by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), businesses are bullish about their prospects over the next 12 months. In its quarterly UK Business Confidence Monitor Report for the second quarter of 2010, the...

Provisional figures published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reveal that the number of people killed at work in Britain fell to a record low in the year 2009/2010. Between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010, 151 workers were killed, compared with 178...

The Government Equalities Office has signalled its intention to proceed with the introduction of the Equality Act 2010 according to the previously announced timetable, which means that its core provisions came into force on 1 October. Under existing...

The Government is currently conducting a review of health and safety laws and practice. Lord Young of Graffham, who was a cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher’s Government, has been appointed as Adviser to David Cameron and is overseeing a...

The ruling of the House of Lords in Stringer and Others v HM Revenue and Customs – that employees who are off work due to sickness for more than a year who have been denied their entitlement to statutory holiday pay can bring a claim under the ...

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have recently taken a swipe at websites which pass on enquiries to the websites of companies which engage in the selling of insurance. Insurance contracts are exempt from VAT, but HMRC argued that the service provided by a...

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has urged organisations to be extra vigilant in the way they handle personal data, after the number of reported data protection breaches reached 1,000. Anyone who processes personal information must comply...

A sale and leaseback agreement between a landlord and tenant was the subject of a recent court case . The decision turned on whether it was reasonable to refuse to comply with the agreement if vacant possession of a very small portion of the property could...

The Government intends to abolish, by 1 October 2011, the Default Retirement Age (DRA) of 65 contained in the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 and has published a consultation document on how it proposes to achieve its aim. Under the proposals,...

A case concerning a company director who was disqualified from acting as a director serves as a reminder of the circumstances in which the court will reverse such a decision. It involved a man whose conduct was judged to have fallen below the standards of...

The Court of Appeal has issued its ruling in an interesting intellectual property (IP) case, involving copycat scents, which follows recent European rulings. The case was brought by l’Oréal and other makers of luxury perfumes. They took...

A recent case shows the importance of acting promptly when a loss due to a breach of the public procurement rules is suspected. It involved a company which had bid for a public procurement contract awarded by the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal...

Doubts had been raised that implementation of the Additional Paternity Leave Regulations 2010, which were passed by the previous Government shortly before the May 2010 General Election, would not proceed as planned. However, the Coalition Government has now...

Since April 2009, the names of employers and individuals who fail to pay Employment Tribunal (ET) awards have been added to the public Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, once enforcement proceedings have been brought against them in the County Court....

A company recently failed to persuade the Court of Appeal that ‘without prejudice’ comments made by the company it was in dispute with should be admitted as evidence in court. Without prejudice material is material which is used in negotiation...

One of the reasons a contract can be abandoned is that the performance of the contract is ‘frustrated’ – something happens which makes it impossible to complete. In August 2007, the builders Barratt contracted with site owner Gold Group...

Employers have a statutory duty to allow their employees reasonable time off work to carry out public duties. Such duties include acting as a justice of the peace, as a prison visitor, as a member of a local authority or relevant health or education body, as...

The core provisions of the Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1 October 2010. The Act replaces nine major pieces of discrimination legislation and other ancillary measures that have been introduced over the last forty years to protect people from...

A new regime for VAT and Excise penalties commenced on 1 April 2010. It provides that the penalties levied for underpayments of VAT and Excise Duty will depend on both the reason for the wrongdoing and whether the disclosure was unprompted or prompted. ...

It has been commonly accepted that where a construction contract gives rise to ‘liquidated and ascertained damages’ (LADs) for breach of the contract terms, the liability for the LADs ends when the contract is terminated. It now appears that that...