? The Solicitors Regulation Authority has undertaken consultation on proposed changes to the rules for solicitors employed by local authorities.  The SRA is proposing to amend rule 4.15(e) of the Practice Framework Rules, to ...

The court has recently considered the extent of disclosure required to satisfy the obligation of fairness in a consultation exercise in the case of R (on the application of Save our Surgery Limited) v Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts  (&l...

Today’s employment law changes; and what else to expect this year Various changes to employment legislation take effect today, including amendments to whistleblowing laws.  Other changes will follow over coming months. In this briefing we...

Local Government Pension Scheme liabilities on academy conversionsBackground The treatment of Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) liabilities on academy conversions has been presenting significant difficulties for some time, with pension liabilit...

Code of Conduct for Operational PFI/PPPs HM Treasury recently published a brand new PFI/PPP code of conduct (the ‘Code’) which is aimed at delivering savings in operational PPP contracts. What has been introduced? ...

On 1 July 2013, following its consultation Judicial Review: proposals for reform, the Government introduced significant changes to the judicial review process.  The stated aim was to balance the need to ensure lawful public administration with ...

A report from the Auditor General for Wales has recommended that Welsh local authorities should implement scrutiny improvement action plans. The recommendation is one of nine recommendations contained in Good Scrutiny? Good Question!, a report of an...

Another year, another budget. So what have we learnt from the contents of the infamous red brief case? Here are some of the highlights for the local government community.             George...

On 4 February 2015, the government launched a consultation on draft regulations implementing the cap on care costs contained in the Care Act 2014. The consultation also sought views on the need for new appeals system in relation to local authorities...

Background The Government’s latest proposal in reforming the English schooling system was laid before Parliament last week in the form of the Education and Adoption Bill 2015-16 (“the Bill”). The Bill sets out provisions to conver...

Introduction The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill 2015 (“the Bill”) is currently before Parliament. The Bill is relatively short and deals with two areas in particular: i) the powers of charities to make social investmen...

On the 5th October the Chancellor George Osborne, set out the Government's plans to devolve powers from Whitehall to local areas in a bid to stimulate economic growth. The initiative was heralded as the “biggest transfer of power to local gove...

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court recently considered whether a dividend distributed by a Swiss company that participated in a zero balancing financing arrangement had been distributed lawfully. The case refers back to 2001 when Swisscargo AG distribu...

The last two years have brought challenging times for ratepayers and there is little respite on the horizon. With the 2017 Revaluation looming, rateable values are likely to increase substantially throughout large swathes of the country. Together wi...

The European Commission has launched three investigations into suspected breach of the competition rules by companies in the consumer electronics, videogames and hotel sectors.  The consumer electronics and videogames probes come out of the Com...

Background Since coming into force in 2013, the EU Timber Regulation 995/2010 (“Timber Regulation”) has placed a due diligence obligation on businesses, requiring systems to be put in place to minimise the possibility that illegally harv...

Introduction The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), the authority responsible for operating and enforcing the UK merger control regime, has published its updated Retail Mergers Commentary (“New Commentary”).1 The CMA ...

What is the Digital Railway programme? The Digital Railway programme is a Network Rail led initiative to modernise train command, control and signalling systems used on the British railway network with the aim of substantially improving the capabili...

Executive Summary The European Commission has consulted on an implementing regulation which will provide additional detail for procedures and criteria to be followed by service facility operators in order to satisfy their obligations under Directive...

Highways England are moving forward with the A303 Stonehenge project (A303) and the Lower Thames crossing (LTC) and will be starting their market and supply chain engagement in March 2018. These projects are two of the largest in Highway England's R...

Intro / Summary The Supreme Court has refused to grant Emirates permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision in the joint case of Gahan v Emirates and Buckley and ors v Emirates meaning the Court of Appeal’s decision to award comp...

Background On 16 October 2019 the Department for Transport (“DfT”) issued its “Rail Network Enhancements Pipeline Update” for Autumn 2019 (the “Enhancements Pipeline Update”). A copy of the Enhancements Pipeline U...

A notice was published in the government gazette on 30 March 2020, in terms of which the minister of transport (the “Minister”) has, in terms of section 18(7) of the National Road Traffic Act (No. 93 of 1996), extended the licensing and ...

We report on Romania’s recently introduced data protection law, focussing on the provisions relating to the processing of national identification numbers and the rules on the use of CCTV and monitoring in an employment context. In July 2018, R...

The Facebook “Like” button and similar social media plugin technologies (Plugin) are now so commonplace that we perhaps don’t give them a second thought. Plugins provide an easy way for consumers to connect instantly with a preferr...

The Central Bank of Malaysia or Bank Negara Malaysia (‘BNM’) on 18 July 2019 issued another policy document which sets out its requirements to the nation’s Financial Institutions (‘FIs’) management of technology risk. W...

CJEU Ruling on Cookies On 1 October 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) gave a preliminary ruling1  on questions referred from the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice in Germany) that:   Consent is not validly ...

The Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) has asked to be given the ability to exercise various powers (and gain access to investigation) under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (“POCA”), and has opened a consultation ...

President Cyril Ramaphosa has received a request from the Information Regulator Chairperson to declare that the remaining provisions of the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) commence on 1 April 2020. If the President acts on the Informa...

Case C-216/17, Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato – Antiturst, Coopservice Soc. coop. arl In its judgment of 19 December 2018 (the &ldq...

Competition partner Julia Woodward-Carlton, who acted for one of the main parties on this case, considers the decision and potential implications of the case in this article. The Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) has today issued ...

On 21 and 20 February 2019 respectively the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published its Provisional Findings and a Full Article