Hybrid working is now an accepted way of working for many employees who relish the balance it brings to their lives. The approach has challenges for employers; not least performance management of remote employees and how to deal with issues that arise. Hybrid working certainly has its benefits, with many surveys reporting that employees who work from home for part of the week feel more productive and can maintain a better work / life balance ...
‘Coming out’, whether as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer, absolutely still matters. With changing societal attitudes and the recent courageous public announcements of two professional footballers, it is hoped that it is getting easier. Nonetheless, workplace statistics still show that LGBTQ+ employees do not openly voice their sexuality and/or gender identity at work through fear of discrimination and harassment ...
This article focuses on the key aspects of the New Homes Quality Code (NHQC), which developers must consider and implement at the reservation and pre-contract stages ...
The passing of Her Late Majesty marks the end of an era, the sudden absence of a reassuring figure who has been with most of us for all of our lives, but it is only the latest in a series of seismic events to remind us of constant change and of our need to continually adapt. With rising inflation and increasing energy costs and an anticipated fall in donations, charities face meeting more demand from fewer resources and the question of what they should be doing at this time ...
Separate ownership of mines and minerals poses a risk for developers that must be assessed and mitigated as appropriate. The basic rule of property ownership is that the owner of land owns up to the heavens and down to the centre of the earth. Following this common law presumption, mines and minerals are presumed to be owned by the surface landowner, unless it is shown that they have been severed and therefore in separate ownership ...
Levelling up was barely mentioned in the recent “mini budget”, reports say barely any of the levelling up funds have actually been spent and figures show that since the first time then PM Boris Johnson uttered those two words “levelling up” in 2020, our regional cities continue to lag behind the capital. Investment is 23% lower, take up 12% lower and average rents a whopping 54% lower ...
During the mini-Budget on 23 September 2022, the Chancellor of the Exchequer made a significant (and unexpected!) announcement that reforms previously made to the IR35 off payroll working regulations will be repealed from 6 April 2023. Quick recap Reforms were made to the IR35 regulations in both 2017 (for the public sector) and in 2021 (for the private sector) ...
With the COVID-19 Inquiry (“the Inquiry”) now open, and applications for Core Participant status for Modules 1 and 2 currently being assessed, potential applicants will need to consider how their participation in the Inquiry will be funded. Section 40 of the Inquiries Act 2005 provides that funding for legal representation can be awarded out of the Inquiry budget. As the Inquiry will be funded by the government this is, in effect, public funding ...
As part of the UK Government’s review of the UK funds regime it has included in the Finance Act 2022, (the Act) a new regime for qualifying asset-holding companies (QAHCs). This regime came into effect on 1 April 2022. The QAHC regime provides a tax efficient, UK resident vehicle through which certain types of institutional investors and funds can hold investments ...
Lauren Bowkett is a fraud and financial crime expert in the Business Crime and Compliance Team at Shoosmiths. She is an expert in confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (‘POCA’) and has successfully intervened in numerous POCA cases to assert her clients third party interest rights ...
A webinar hosted by Shoosmiths in collaboration with Asset Reality. Scroll down the page to watch the webinar. Intro poll According to a recent survey, what percentage of millennial millionaires own cryptocurrency? According to a recent study conducted by CNBC, 83% percent of millennial millionaires own cryptocurrency with over half having at least 50% of their wealth in cryptocurrencies. https://cointelegraph ...
With all the changes to the world of work that we have recently experienced and are continuing to experience, our webinar programme this year is focused on the future of work and in particular the hot topics that HR teams are having to handle now in order to future-proof their organisations. Our latest seminar focused on effective performance management in a hybrid working world ...
A recent decision by the UK’s Data Protection Authority, the ICO, throws some interesting light on the regulatory mood around enforcement of the rules governing how businesses can use their customer lists for marketing emails. It’s worth thinking about how easily an over-enthusiastic approach can go wrong. On 6 September 2022, Halfords were fined £30,000 by the ICO for sending around half a million unsolicited marketing emails ...
Reflecting on Scottish Housing Day's theme of sustainability for this year, we consider the balancing act faced by developers in dealing with an ever changing set of challenges in their drive to Net Zero. Scottish Housing Day 2022 shines a spotlight on sustainable housing ...
We published an article on the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) commenting on the publication of the exposure drafts of two International Financial Reporting Standards (the Standards). The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published its response welcoming the Standards. Key points The FCA stated that the Standards generally met its expectations as set out in its Strategy 2022 to 2025 ...
Much has been reported about harassment in the workplace, not least the Fawcett Society report in 2021 which showed at least 40% of women experience sexual harassment during their career. Progress in this area is slow as recent case law demonstrates ...
There are many situations where an employer is required to calculate an employee’s weekly pay. Whilst this might appear straightforward, there are nuances that employers need to be aware of. We explore the most common tricky areas and how to address them. Identifying a week’s pay is necessary when calculating holiday pay, statutory redundancy pay, notice pay or the basic award for an unfair dismissal claim ...
On 31 August 2022, the UK COVID-19 Inquiry (“the Inquiry”) opened its second Module. Module 2 will examine the political and administrative decision making of the UK and devolved governments, with a particular focus on early 2020 ...
It is well-known that happier employees are harder to poach and, as a result, it is crucial that employers create a culture that drives staff loyalty and retention so as to mitigate the impact of the ongoing war for talent. Our future of work series previously examined top tips for recruiting a diverse workforce. However, in order to successfully retain staff, organisations must go further and look beyond their initial recruitment processes to evaluate the overall culture of the business ...
On 21 July 2022, the Chair of the COVID-19 Inquiry ('the Inquiry'), Baroness Heather Hallett, issued an opening statement. As part of her commitment to streamlining the process, the Chair has invited applicants to group themselves together with others with a similar interest, wherever possible, to help manage the potentially large number of people and organisations seeking Core Participant status ...
With regulations imposing mandatory vaccination for certain workers in the care sector being implemented to those same regulations being revoked some four months later, employers in this sector may well be confused as to what options are available to them ...
The Court of Appeal's judgment in Tesco v USDAW and others, handed down a few weeks ago, has confirmed that 'fire and rehire' is still an option available to employers, which will come as a relief to many organisations ...
Our latest article provides a useful checklist to help in-house legal teams consider potential implications when dealing with employment claims arising from the pandemic, which are linked to civil and/or criminal claims and the COVID-19 public inquiry. Companies have been receiving Employment Tribunal claims arising from the pandemic – ranging from unfair dismissal (no jab, no job) to whistleblowing and bullying claims relating to alleged employer breaches during the multiple lockdowns ...
Pensions dashboards have been a long time in the making, but we can be certain now that they are coming, and soon. Trustees of schemes with more than 100 members (excluding pensioner members) will need to ensure that they connect to the dashboard by their statutory connection date - but there’s a lot of preparatory work needed to make that possible ...
The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 (the Act) came into force on 30 June 2022. Headlined as one of the ‘most significant changes to property law in a generation’, the Act restricts ground rents on newly created long residential leases. Ground rents have been replaced by a token one peppercorn per year – effectively zero in monetary value. By restricting ground rent, the government is aiming to make leasehold ownership more affordable ...
