JD Supra United Kingdom

Publisher:
JD Supra
Publication date:
2019-04-29

Publisher

Latest documents

  • Briefcase 2024 Quarter 1: Key Real Estate Cases and Updates

    Case 1: Blackhorse Investments (Borough) Ltd v Southwark London Borough Council - The Upper Tribunal found that an alienation covenant, a keep open covenant and a best endeavours covenant were outside of its jurisdiction to modify.

  • Cayman Islands and BVI Sanctions Update – New Licensing Grounds for Russia Related Divestments

    New specific licensing grounds available under Cayman Islands and BVI Russia sanctions will pave the way for Cayman Islands and BVI investment funds and other entities to divest their frozen assets in Russia as well as remove sanctioned interests from their ownership structures. The UK has introduced new divestment specific licensing grounds in its Russian sanctions regulations which came into effect on 15 December 2023. The relevant Order in Council to extend these new grounds to British Overseas Territories, including the Cayman Islands and the BVI was made on 13 March 2024 and comes into force on 14 March 2024.

  • UK Options for Whistleblower Financial Incentive Programmes in Economic Crime Investigations

    On 13th February 2024, in a wide-ranging speech, the Director of the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Nick Ephgrave, publicly stated his provisional support for financial incentives to whistleblowers in allegations of significant economic crime. This was Mr. Ephgrave’s first public speech, some six months after joining the UK’s anti-financial crime unit. Like previous Directors, having identified the challenge of investigating and prosecuting suspected fraud and corruption cases at any degree of pace, Mr. Ephgrave has embarked on reimagining the rules of the game to provide shortcuts and efficiencies. For Sir David Green, Director from 2012 to 2018, it was DPAs and an extension of the “failure to prevent” concept to all corporate financial crime – changes that have been implemented in the decade following their first mention. Sir David’s successor, Lisa Osofsky, suggested that wiretaps would improve the speed of investigations and the success rate of prosecutions. Fresh eyes on old challenges are always welcome.

  • The Pensions Brief: February 2024

    The Pensions Brief is a monthly update for trustees and employers of occupational pension schemes in the UK. It provides headline summaries of developments over the previous month and associated action points. It also includes a timeline of forthcoming developments over the next 12 months.

  • Regulatory monitoring Newsletter - February 2024

    1. Bank regulation - 1.1 Prudential regulation - (a) General - (i) EU - ECB: Memorandum of Cooperation between ECB and CAs on third-country bank supervision - Status: Final - The ECB has published a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the ECB and competent authorities (CAs) in relation to the supervision of third-country banking groups and branches. The MoC’s aims include to: (i) ensure cooperation by the authorities with the aim of comprehensively supervising all activities of third-country groups in the EU. It seeks to strengthen the supervisory framework established by the CRD and the CRR that applies to third-country groups in the Union, to prevent the circumvention of its requirements, and to prevent any detrimental impact on the financial stability of the EU;...

  • A Move Towards Unregulated Growth - Infrastructure

    Decarbonisation and digitisation: two of the key trends we heard a lot about in 2023 and we see no signs of that abating in 2024. Hand in hand with this, one of the ongoing themes for sponsors in the infra space is: how should we be thinking about structuring our investments into those unregulated ‘growth’ assets? We have answers! Take a look at our article for some of the key issues investors in growth assets should keep front of mind as they continue to invest through 2024.

  • Managing a clash of rights in the workplace – recent cases and legal consideration

    In the third instalment of our equality and discrimination blog series, I explore how to deal with the growing issue of addressing conflicting rights in the workplace. This is one of the most difficult challenges for employers, at a time where workers are encouraged to bring their authentic selves to work. Two recent Employment Tribunal decisions highlight the dilemma as employers in both cases were required to manage very sensitive and competing rights on (1) the validity of transgender identities; and (2) Anti-Zionist views. Employers are grappling with a rapidly developing area of law, with a growing number of beliefs being held by Tribunals to be protected ‘philosophical beliefs’ under equality legislation. Protection of those beliefs is underpinned by the fundamental freedoms of individuals under human rights law, in particular freedom of expression. In modern society, debate on controversial rights-based issues is commonplace, and employers are seeing more of that debate entering the workplace, but with limited ability to restrict what employees can say, unless it is objectionable. In legal terms, what is objectionable is a complex and very high bar. In practice, this means two employees can hold diametrically opposed views and can express these views, even if they are offensive to the other, provided they are respectful. That is not an easy equation if you are managing disputes or educating a workforce on their responsibilities in this area.

  • Buying and Selling Real Estate in England and Wales (Update)

    KEY FACTS OF REAL ESTATE ACQUISITIONS UNDER BRITISH LAW - 1. Introduction - Historically, there has been significant investment by overseas individuals and corporations in real estate in England and Wales and in particular in central London, which is perceived as a safe haven for overseas investors. Much of the recent overseas investment has been focused on residential real estate, but there has also been substantial investment in commercial real estate.

  • The Pensions Brief - January 2024

    General Code – final version published - The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has published the final version of its new General Code and an accompanying consultation response. The Code consolidates ten of TPR’s existing codes of practice and sets out the requirements that schemes need to meet in order to have an effective system of governance (ESOG) in place. The Code has been laid before Parliament for approval and is expected to come into force on 27 March 2024.

  • UK Real Estate Horizon Scanner- Spring 2024 edition

    A snapshot of key regulatory developments expected to impact the UK real estate sector over the coming months. What is coming down the line this Spring in terms of new legislation and which are the crucial cases to have on your radar? We are seeing a huge amount of change, both politically and economically, which is reflected in a constant array of new government policies for 2024. Check out our Spring 2024 edition of the new Real Estate Horizon Scanner to see what’s in store and when, to help you plan for the months ahead.

Featured documents

  • The U.K. Passes the Bribery Act Creating Several New Anti-Corruption Offenses, Including “Strict” Criminal Liability

    A major development in the enforcement and prosecution of overseas bribery occurred last week with the long awaited passage of the U.K.’s Bribery Act. The Act, which received royal assent last Thursday, creates several new anti-corruption offenses that could impact companies doing business in the...

  • UK Public Procurement Law Digest: Risks of Abandoning Procurements

    Court defeat for contracting authority shows the potential risks of aborting a public procurement in favour of a parallel procurement, and highlights issues in the use of a “public sector comparator” model. Leeds City Council has lost the first stage of what might be a protracted legal battle...

  • FSA Hedge Fund Surveys Conclusions Published

    The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) recently published a report entitled “Assessing possible sources of systemic risk from hedge funds.” It sets out the FSA’s key findings and conclusions from two surveys it conducted in April 2010—the Hedge Funds as Counterparties Survey (HFACS) and the...

  • European Commission Consultation on the Review of MiFID

    The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (“MiFID”) came into force in November 2007 and made significant changes to the regulatory framework of financial services within the EU, introducing a harmonised regime for the regulation of investment services. On 8 December 2010, the European...

  • Two Million Reasons to Break the Silence

    Following a recent Ofcom announcement, UK entities using automated dialling software face a change in the risk profile of marketing calls. Any UK entity using automated dialling software to facilitate marketing calls should be aware of a significant change in risk following the announcement by...

  • UK Bribery Act to come into force on 1 July 2011

    On 30 March 2011 the Ministry of Justice released its long awaited guidance (the Guidance) setting out what may constitute an “adequate procedures” defence to an allegation that a commercial organisation failed to prevent bribery under section 7 of the UK Bribery Act 2010 (the Act). The publication ...

  • Commercial Contracts: The Uncertainty of Construction

    Although disputes between contracting parties about the meaning of their documents have always been common, such disputes have been particularly prominent of late in the context of complex debt restructurings. The modern approach to contractual interpretation is derived from the speeches of...

  • In Brief—UK Employment and HR Newsletter

    In this mid-year issue of our employment and HR newsletter, we look at the top ten lessons in dismissal and discrimination that we can learn from case law so far this year. We also highlight the key employment law changes that took effect in April and preview what is expected over the next few...

  • UK Government Consults On Statutory Residence Test

    Background In recent years, UK law on tax residence has become increasingly problematic following a number of high-profile cases and changes to the UK Revenue’s published guidance. Although for most people living and working full-time in the UK the application of the residence rules is...

  • Recent Contract Law Cases Relevant in the Financial Services Industry

    This DechertOnPoint examines some decisions of the English courts in the past year that may have relevance in the financial services industry. It is aimed primarily at in-house counsel and covers decisions in the following areas: - excluding liability for misrepresentation - interpretation ...

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