The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a single redundancy required some form of wider workforce consultation, and that this should be the norm for all individual redundancy exercises. Nevertheless, taking into account the facts of this case and long-established case law and rules on collective consultation, we consider that the main point is that consultation takes place with affected employee(s) at a time when it could make a difference.
The Home Office has announced that from 6 April 2024, the requirement to renew a Sponsor License after four years or to pay a renewal fee will be removed. This announcement is in line with the Home Office’s “August 2021 Sponsorship Roadmap”, which indicated the future reform of licensing renewal patterns for sponsored employment routes and the simplification of the Sponsor Migrant System. This is positive news as it reduces the burden on sponsors to maintain their license and removes the additional financial burden.
The FRC has published the revised version of the UK Corporate Governance Code. As flagged in its policy update statement in November, the revised Code makes much more limited changes than those proposed in the FRC’s initial consultation paper from May 2023. The majority of changes will take effect for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025, with the exception of revised Provision 29, which will take effect a year later. The FRC has published updated guidance to sit alongside the revised Code.
The requirement that an inventor provides an enabling disclosure of their invention in exchange for patent protection lies at the heart of the patent system and is a central consideration for organizations across innovative sectors, especially those in life sciences and pharmaceuticals. This webinar delves into the dynamic landscape of patent enablement and plausibility standards, comparing and contrasting the nuanced approaches adopted in the US and Europe. In this session, we will discuss these recent developments, with a special focus on what they mean with respect to licensing, M&A and other transactions in the healthcare space and how you can anticipate issues as they arise in deals.
On 4 December 2023, the FCA published a consultation on rules and guidance to integrate the Overseas Funds Regime (OFR) into the Handbook and to enable recognition of overseas funds from jurisdictions approved by HM Treasury. The new rules and guidance will operationalize the OFR, implementing the regime’s framework to allow recognized overseas funds to be marketed to UK retail investors. The proposals include the information to be submitted with an application for recognition, notifications of changes, and enhanced disclosures regarding lack of access to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Financial Ombudsman Service.
In recent years, through the introduction of the Green Claims Code, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has taken an interest in the green claims made by businesses. This interest has included the CMA reviewing and investigating descriptions and labels used to promote ‘eco-friendly’ products. The Green Claims Code applies wherever a green claim is made by a business for a consumer.
As part of this interest in the green claims made by businesses, to date the CMA has focussed on two main sectors – the fashion retail sector and the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (“FMCG”) sector. While the CMA has already investigated businesses in the fashion retail sector, the CMA has more recently launched a review of environmental claims made by businesses in this FMCG space.
Employees will have a statutory right to a week’s unpaid leave each year to care for a dependent from 6 April 2024. The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 have been laid before Parliament and are expected to be made shortly. They set out details of the scheme intended under the Carer’s Leave Act 2023, as previously reported.
Employers will need to decide whether they wish to enhance the new rights, for example, by paying for some or all of the leave, as part of an employee benefits package to recruit, retain, and support employees with caring responsibilities. Some employers may already offer a form of contractual carer’s leave.
From 6 April 2024, the current right of employees on maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave (“family leave”) to be offered suitable alternative employment in preference to other employees who are at risk of redundancy will be extended to cover pregnant employees, and those who have recently returned from such types of family leave.
In this article originally published in Risk & Compliance Journal written by Baker McKenzie employment and financial services regulatory experts, we explore the diversity and inclusion proposals recently put forward by the UK financial services regulators.
Join us on 18 January 2024 as our Baker McKenzie experts – joined by Adam Jacobs Dean of AIMA and other industry specialists – explore the continuing evolution of ESG regulation and compliance challenges that firms can expect to encounter in the new year. This session will focus on the FCA’s new ESG product labelling regime (the “SDR”), upcoming changes to the EU’s SFDR regime, and emerging best practices in ESG governance.