Insights / Data protection: European Commission kicks off UK adequacy process
12-03-2021 /
The European Commission (“Commission”) recently published its draft EU GDPR¹ adequacy decision (the “Draft Decision”)², for data flows between the European Union (“EU”) and United Kingdom (“UK”) bringing the UK closer to a positive decision on the continued free flow of personal data from the EU into the UK.

Insights / Lockdown 3: Electronic signatures and virtual execution
12-02-2021 /
This is an update to our March 2020 article on electronic signatures following the Law Society’s recent guidance on how English law governed contracts can be signed using electronic signatures (“e-signatures”).

Insights / Data Protection - Do we need to appoint a GDPR article 27 representative in the EU?
25-01-2021 /
An EU representative is a natural or legal person appointed to represent controllers or processors not established in the EU (EU Representative). To be established in the EU means you have a branch, representative office or other unincorporated presence there.

Insights / Getting ready for Brexit - Data Protection
18-11-2020 /
With the end of the Brexit transition period approaching on 31 December 2020, we consider what implications this will have for data protection in the UK.

Insights / Data Protection: The Implications of Schrems II for International Data Transfers
17-11-2020 /
The judgment handed down by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) on 16 July 2020 in Schrems II ¹ had significant implications for the transfer of personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA).

Insights / Covid-19: New UK Government guidance on responsible contracting
22-05-2020 /
At a time when companies are working through the impact of Covid-19 on their business, employees, contracts and supply chains, the Government has issued guidance on ‘responsible contractual behaviour’ for contracts ‘materially impacted’ by Covid-19 (i.e. those too difficult or impossible to perform). It calls on parties to act responsibly and fairly during the Covid-19 pandemic in order to protect businesses, jobs, supply chains and the UK’s economic recovery.

News / COVID-19: Are you(r contracts) frustrated?
16-04-2020 /
Following on from Ince’s recent article on force majeure clauses, we consider the common law rules on frustration. Frustration may provide relief for parties under English law governed contracts entered into before the onset of COVID-19 which are now difficult or impossible to perform and where there is no force majeure clause in the contract or a force majeure clause does not sufficiently capture an event such as COVID-19.

News / COVID-19: What are the implications for data protection?
24-03-2020 /
As governments work to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and companies implement emergency measures to comply with public health initiatives, it is important that any steps taken are consistent with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). We set out below the basic data protection questions you may have from a UK perspective.

News / EU GDPR enforced against a Canadian data analytics company
06-02-2019 / Energy & Infrastructure
The UK data protection regulator has issued its first enforcement notice against a non-EU company. Canadian AggregateIQ Data Services Ltd (AIQ), which is alleged to have ties to Cambridge Analytica, used the personal data of Facebook users to target pro-Brexit advertisements at prospective voters online during the Brexit referendum campaign.

News / How important is the temporary nature of assignments in determining whether an employee is an agency worker?
01-11-2018 /
In Brooknight Guarding Limited v Matei [2018], the EAT considered the importance of the temporary nature of an assignment in determining whether a worker on a zero hours contract is an agency worker.

News / Is a five-month cessation of activities long enough to disapply TUPE?
01-11-2018 /
The ECJ in Colino Sigüenza v Ayuntamiento de Valladolid and others (Case C-472/16), considered whether the Acquired Rights Directive applied when there was five-month gap between the termination of a concession to run a public school and resumption by another contractor.

News / Insolvency and corporate governance: New powers to tackle reckless directors
01-11-2018 /
The Government has responded to the consultation by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and The Insolvency Service on proposals to improve the corporate governance of firms that are in or approaching insolvency.

News / National Minimum Wage penalties for employers with staff who transfer under TUPE
01-11-2018 /
HMRC has changed its approach to how it apportions National Minimum Wage liabilities, including penalties, between the former employer and new employer in a transfer situation.

News / The status of legal privilege in employment advice
01-11-2018 /
In X v Y Ltd [2018] the EAT considered whether email advice that a firm could use a redundancy exercise as a “cloak” to dismiss an employee provided sufficient evidence of iniquity to prevent legal professional privilege being claimed over its contents.

News / Corporate Governance Code 2018
19-09-2018 /
A new Corporate Governance Code designed to attract long-term investment to the UK and promote integrity in business will apply to premium listed companies, for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2019

News / Does an employee need to read a notice of dismissal?
28-06-2018 /
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v Haywood [2018] UKSC 22

News / Must an employer know that misconduct arose from a disability?
28-06-2018 /
The Court of Appeal in City of York Council v Grosset [2018], considered whether, following the dismissal of a disabled employee, discrimination arising from disability had occurred despite the employer not knowing that the misconduct arose from their disability.

News / Can there be gross misconduct where there is no single identifiable act of misconduct?
28-06-2018 /
The EAT in Mbubaegbu v Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2018] considered whether a hospital trust had fairly dismissed a consultant for misconduct where there was no single act of gross misconduct.

News / Taylor Review: Government response
19-04-2018 /
In February 2018, BEIS set out the Government response to the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices published in July 2017.

News / BHS Company Voluntary Arrangement – Landlord CVA win
16-04-2018 /
In a year fast becoming dubbed the “year of the CVA” in the retail sector, there was a cautionary tale for insolvency practitioners following the recent High Court judgment in Re SHB Realisations Ltd (formerly BHS ltd (in liquidation).
