Insights & News
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Financial Conduct Authority launches new diversity targets with comply or explain obligation
17 May 2022The FCA has taken another step towards improving board diversity and inclusion with the introduction of new ethnic and gender diversity targets for listed companies, and an accompanying obligation on firms to comply or explain.
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“LURB” - Practical Planning Points for Developers
17 May 2022The Government finally issued the long awaited Planning Bill on 11 May repackaged as “The Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill” (“LURB”). The LURB covers a wide range of proposals or “missions” for levelling-up the country as well as planning reforms.
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“No purchase necessary” route for chance based competitions no longer required in Northern Ireland
16 May 2022As we posted recently, it’s the moment you’ve been waiting for – the laws on chance-based competitions (where success does not depend on skill) in Northern Ireland (NI) have finally been broadly aligned with the rest of the UK.
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Update on UK immigration processing delays
13 May 2022Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, the Home Office has been increasing its published visa decision waiting times as it prioritises the processing of applications under the Ukraine schemes.
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Offering employment to refugees from Ukraine
12 May 2022According to the UNHCR, one of the key contributors to refugee integration is meaningful employment - enabling self-sufficiency and social connections. The Government is now running three immigration schemes for people arriving in the UK from Ukraine, and this week has shed a little more light on how these tie in with access to the labour market.
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Gender pay gap reporting in Ireland – new guidance published
12 May 2022The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has finally published some details on how employers will have to calculate their gender pay gap statistics.
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TUPE: Whose liability is it anyway?
12 May 2022A recent TUPE case has illustrated how both the transferor and transferee can be found liable for failure to inform or consult under TUPE.
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Lease Flexibility - The Great Office Occupier & Developer Debate
11 May 2022The concept of ‘flexibility’ from a leasehold perspective can take many forms and within that there are degrees and differing perspectives. The coming years will see more flexibility within leases and/or licences and perhaps new arrangements that have yet to come to light. The future is unclear, but that will, inevitably, create opportunities and encourage change.
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The Queen's Speech 2022
11 May 2022The 2022 Queen’s speech was widely expected to be the moment when the government finally announced its intention to implement a number of significant employment law reforms, including the long-anticipated Employment Bill. Instead, there is no mention of the Bill and only two provisions that touch on employment rights at all. Does this signal the demise of all these changes, or are they simply delayed?
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Wellbeing and human centric workspace challenge – The Great Office Occupier & Developer Debate
11 May 2022Wellbeing is a difficult concept to pin down: it is both physical and intangible, practical and esoteric, and so can be tricky to measure with any accuracy. That said, the disruption from COVID-19 has provided an opportunity to create better, more human-centric workspaces.
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The Sustainability and Net Zero Challenge – The Great Office Occupier & Developer Debate
11 May 2022The lockdown months saw a huge reduction in the operational carbon footprints from commercial workplace premises. The lack of the daily commute for millions of workers also contributed to improvements in urban air quality and energy consumption.
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Siobhra Rush has provided insight in the Irish Times on how best to deal with the challenges of hybrid/remote working
10 May 2022Siobhra Rush shares her comments on the challenges managers face when it comes to hybrid and remote working and how best to deal with them.
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Climate-related whistleblowing
04 May 2022The climate emergency will be a major concern to employees in the years ahead. This may lead to a rise in climate-related whistleblowing and future litigation.
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Ireland: New legislation in Ireland on flexible working aims to implement EU Directive and modernise family and caring leave. Linda Hynes comments for Business Post.
04 May 2022This Working Life: New EU directive aims to bring parental leave into the modern age
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Empathic AI – workplace data privacy and employment issues arising from this emerging technology
04 May 2022Smile! You’re on camera! And we are detecting your heart rate, pupil dilation, blood pressure, temperature, and other physiognomic measurements… Empathic Artificial Intelligence is a sub-group of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems which makes use of empathic technology: algorithms that purportedly have the ability to detect human emotions. In this article we consider the data privacy and employment issues for employers arising from this emerging technology.
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Important update on Home Office sponsor licence compliance activities
03 May 2022The Home Office has recently launched an initiative for contacting work route sponsors where their records indicate that sponsor licence system (SMS) users have not accessed the system for 12 months. To minimise the risk of potential compliance action, sponsors should take the opportunity to review their key personnel details and how they manage reporting on their sponsor licence.
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Gnat and Company Limited and China Tang London Limited v West Lake East Limited and Honglu Gu (China Tang)
29 April 2022Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (His Honour Judge Hacon). 16 February 2022. China Tang gives a useful insight into the requirements for proving infringement under Section 10(2) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (the TMA) and demonstrates that actual confusion is not necessary for proving a likelihood of confusion. It also highlights the importance of undertaking searches and seeking legal advice before trading under a particular name.
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High Court enforces 12-month non-compete clause
28 April 2022The High Court has upheld a covenant restricting a solicitor from joining a competitor for 12 months following the termination of her employment. This decision reinforces the importance of carefully drafting restrictive covenants in employment contracts to ensure the scope of any restrictions go no further than is reasonably necessary to protect an employer’s legitimate business interests.
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Government consultation on reform of non-compete clauses in employment contracts: an update (of sorts)
28 April 2022The government has confirmed that it is still analysing responses to its consultation on reforming non-compete clauses and that its response will be published in due course, following further research.