If you’ve been following the news over the last few months, and in particular the last couple of weeks, you’ll have seen the headlines surrounding Sam Bankman-Fried – the co-founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange platform, FTX, who oversaw the high profile failure of the business that was initially said to have cost its clients some $8bn and who was recently handed a 25-year jail sentence after a Court in New York found him guilty of fraud and conspiracy to launder money. Having at one time been valued in the region of $32 billion, FTX ended up filing for bankruptcy in the US Bankruptcy ..read more

On 19 March 2024, the Ministry of Justice published draft legislation to reverse the Supreme Court’s controversial July 2023 decision in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc) v Competition Appeal Tribunal [2023] UKSC 28 (PACCAR), where it was held that litigation funding agreements (LFAs) can be damages-based agreements (DBAs) in circumstances where the funder plays no part in the conduct of the litigation but their remuneration is based on a percentage of any damages recovered. Crucially, DBAs are rendered unenforceable if they do not comply with the relevant regulatory regime. This regime imp ..read more

The Equality Act 2010 applies to many different life areas that affect B-Corps, particularly as employers and service providers. What can we learn from recent legal cases about how the Act prohibits direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation relating to philosophical beliefs? The law recognises an increasing number of philosophical beliefs as protected, and many of those beliefs are the subject of heated debate in society, including: A belief in climate change; Ethical veganism (in some cases), but not vegetarianism; The gender critical belief that sex is binary and immu ..read more

The question of how to pay holiday pay to workers working irregular hours has for many years been a vexed one. Rolling up holiday pay has technically been unlawful (although as a matter of pragmatism it has remained a wide-spread practice). In 2022 the Supreme Court in Harpur Trust v Brazel cast doubt on the usual calculation method of 12.07% of hourly pay, and ruled that workers working a part year but employed year round could not have their holiday pay calculation pro-rated to the actual weeks worked. This has led to unexpected liabilities and significant confusion for employers who engage ..read more

The new Procurement Act 2023 represents a significant transformation of public procurement law. £300 billion per year is spent on public procurement and these changes will affect both public bodies that procure services from third party contractors and any organisations that bid for public contracts.   The changes are likely to come into force in October 2024. So what has changed and how can you prepare over the next 6 months?   In this webinar we’ll be sharing an overview of the new Act, the major changes and what this means to you in practical terms. We’ll also have time at the end ..read more

2024 has already been a year of rapid change for the UK’s most-used immigration routes. The rest of the year looks set to be no less eventful and in particular, important changes to both the Skilled Worker and partner routes will be coming into force in early April.   Common themes of the new measures are increased financial requirements and restrictions on the rights of dependants to join their family. They either already affect or soon will affect students, the global business mobility and scale up routes, seasonal workers, creative workers, care workers, skilled workers, their employer ..read more

On Monday 11 March, the government announced that it had updated its definition of ‘extremism’, specifically stating that this is in response to ‘increased extremist threat since the October 7th attacks in Israel’. This definition will apply across government’s funding of and interaction with third parties under its new engagement principles. The definition of extremism reads: Extremism is the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to: negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others; or undermine, overturn or replace the UK ..read more

The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 is implementing new and more rigidly enforceable duties on students’ unions (SUs). They require, among other things, relevant SUs to take “reasonably practicable steps” to secure “freedom of speech within the law” for groups, including students and visiting speakers. The Act also expands the requirements applying to higher education providers (HEPs). The statutory duties are somewhat generic and unclear, and yet they have potentially significant consequences for unions. It is crucial that the sector obtains clear guidance which recognises both ..read more

The recent Tax Tribunal judgment in Mathur v HMRC serves as a stark reminder for employers of the importance of getting things right when it comes to the tax treatment of termination payments in settlement agreements, in particular in circumstances where those payments are intended (in full or in part) as compensation for injury to feelings in the context of alleged discrimination. It is also a helpful reminder of the principle that, when it comes to settling discrimination claims: in certain circumstances, payment for injury to feelings which is not related to the termination of employment c ..read more

Our weekly round up of news and updates from across the sector Charities Act 2022 As trailed in our Briefing last week, Charities Act 2022 (Commencement No. 3, Consequential, Saving and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/265) were made on 28 February, bringing into force on 7 March the third tranche of changes under the Charities Act 2022. The changes in force from 7 March 2024 include: Changing purposes and amending governing documents: For charitable companies and CIOs: the new provisions set out the matters the Charity Commission must consider when deciding whether to cons ..read more