Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP (JD Supra United Kingdom)

Following an adjustment to immigration rules announced by the Home Office on 5 May 2021, if you’re the recipient of an elite award, you may now be eligible to bypass part of the existing immigration process and access a fast-track route into the U.K.

There are various types of visas for the U.K. They are designed for different purposes and lengths of stay. U.K. visas are available under many diverse categories. This article gives a high-level overview of some of the key immigration categories that allow individuals to enter the U.K.

If you’re from Hong Kong and are a British National (Overseas) citizen, you and your family members can apply for a British National (Overseas) visa. The visa will entitle you to live, work and study in the U.K. The visa application process officially opened on 31 January 2021, and you can now apply for the visa using the official U.K. Government smartphone app that launched on 23 February 2021.

English M&A counsel are often heard telling their clients that breach of warranty claims will likely settle out of court. This certainly seems to have been the case in the past, and we are all aware of the paucity of binding authority on a number of commercial and legal issues related to warranties and disclosures. However, a recently decided case demonstrates that there is an exception to every...

As reported in our previous alert “Losing LIBOR in the Capital Markets — Are You Ready?,” the anticipated date for discontinuation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is approaching. While LIBOR is a widely used benchmark rate for U.S. dollar-denominated floating-rate debt securities and other financial products, LIBOR was the subject of widespread market manipulation and ineffective...

It has become something of a truism for English M&A lawyers to say that material adverse change (MAC) clauses are rarely triggered in practice. A recent English judgment in Travelport Ltd v Wex Inc [2020] EWHC 2670 (Comm) will be of interest to parties to M&A transactions as it highlights the English courts’ approach to one of the key aspects of such claims.

2021 is already off to a surreal start, but it has nonetheless been coined a “completely new beginning” for the real estate sector as businesses look to turn the page on 2020 and confront the realities of a market that has been transformed by COVID-19. We look at the latest developments across the real estate market as the sector looks towards a post-pandemic paradigm.

Many employers will be hoping to return to the workplace in 2021 and the newly approved vaccines are likely to play a major role in this push. In the U.K., the National Health Service (NHS) has begun its rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. The rollout will initially focus on nine high-priority groups (including people aged over 50 and the clinically vulnerable), so the majority of the working...

Starting the week of January 11, 2021, all international travelers arriving in England, including U.K. nationals, will be required to present a negative COVID-19 test taken up to 72 hours before travel. Travelers will be subject to an immediate fine of £500 if they fail to comply with the new regulations on pre-departure testing. All passengers arriving from countries not on the government’s...

More than two years since publishing the National Security and Investment White Paper, the U.K. government has finally published a response to its consultation on reforms to the U.K. investment screening process together with, most importantly, the draft National Security and Investment Bill.

The UK Government has announced that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (also known as the furlough scheme) will be extended until 31 March 2021. Prior to this announcement, the furlough scheme was due to close on 31 October 2020 and be replaced by the Job Support Scheme from 1 November, however this has now been postponed.

On 30 October 2020, the UK’s data privacy regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a final penalty notice (Penalty Notice) to fine the hotel chain Marriott International, Inc. (Marriott) for a GDPR data breach caused by a sophisticated hacking of its systems. In a strikingly similar fashion to the recent British Airways (BA) GDPR final penalty notice, Marriot received a near-r

On 22 October 2020, the United Kingdom government issued a Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules that will come into force for visa applications submitted after 9 a.m. on 1 December 2020. Under the new rules, the visa application process for European Union (EU) and non-EU-nationals will be the same.

On 1 October 2020, the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) implemented its newly promulgated and updated rules, seeking to improve and expedite its international commercial arbitration proceedings.

Disability Discrimination: Was the Discrimination ‘Because Of’ Disability or ‘But For’ Disability? In Robinson v Department for Work and Pensions [2020] EWCA Civ 859, the Court of Appeal provided helpful guidance on the test to be used to establish claims of disability ‘arising from disability’.

What is the national and business context? The U.K. has historically adopted a relatively liberal approach to foreign investment and remains one of the top recipients of foreign investment in the world. In contrast to its neighbours in Europe and the United States, the U.K. does not currently operate a separate framework for the review of foreign investment transactions that raise national...

The U.K. government recently launched a consultation process for regulating consumer Internet of Things (IOT) security. This could have significant implications for U.S. manufacturers, given that the U.K. will remain a key sales market following Brexit.

In the case of Duchy Farm Kennels v. Steels, the High Court considered whether a term of confidentiality in a COT3 settlement agreement was a condition of the agreement, in which case a former employee’s breach of that term would have entitled the employer to withhold payments due under the agreement.

On Monday 13 July, the U.K. government published further details outlining their plan for a new immigration system which will amend the existing points-based immigration system. This system is to take effect from 1 January 2021. The 130-page document doesn’t contain a lot more detail than the proposals released earlier in the year, which we summarized in April.

On Wednesday, 1 July 2020, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed, in a statement to Parliament about Hong Kong, a new bespoke U.K. immigration route for British National (Overseas) (BNO) citizens and their dependants. BNO status is a previously obscure form of British nationality held by an estimated 2.9 million people in Hong Kong that, until now, did not allow for long-term residence in the...

In the final instalment of our series examining the return to work post-shutdown in the U.K., we look at the potential trends and longer-term changes that the COVID-19 pandemic will likely have on U.K. workplaces. The COVID-19 pandemic and resultant shutdown in the U.K. have caused a massive shift in the way we work, with many employers sending their employees home and transitioning to home-wor

On 25 June 2020, the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (the Act) received Royal Assent, and the majority of its provisions are now in force. The Act has introduced a number of permanent reforms and temporary measures, which together represent the most significant change to English insolvency law in nearly 20 years.

In this second instalment in our series examining the challenges U.K. employers are likely to face in the coming months, Faegre Drinker’s London labor and employment attorneys consider how employers can manage the economic impact that COVID-19 will likely have on many workplaces.

14-Day Quarantine Rules for International Travellers Entering the U.K. International travellers arriving in the U.K. on or after 8 June 2020 will be asked to go into quarantine for two weeks. The Home Office has announced that this measure will come into force on 8 June. There is a separate list of exceptions, including for arrivals from within the Common Travel Area covering the U.K., Ireland,...

Trading Conditions for U.K. Businesses - On 14 May 2020, the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics published its latest indicators for the U.K. economy and society in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recent Updates on the U.K.’s Furlough Leave - The U.K. government has published various updates to its guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (colloquially known as the furlough leave scheme). Below we summarise the most significant developments:

In a recent ruling of the English High Court, a judge has set out the principles which the English Courts should apply when considering applications to adjourn hearings and for extensions of time made against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic. The principles provide useful context for parties choosing to litigate in these uncertain times.

Brigadier Acquisition Company Limited, controlled by Michael Shina the owner of Crew Clothing, is reported to have applied to the U.K. Panel on Takeovers and Mergers (the “Panel”) to revoke its £22 million offer for British menswear chain Moss Bros, arguing that the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic constitute a material adverse change condition (MAC). Given that the deal was only announced...

On April 17, the U.K. Information Commissioner (Commissioner) published an Opinion on the recently announced joint initiative by Apple and Google to assist health authorities with contact tracing in the fight against COVID-19, referred to by the Commissioner as the Contact Tracing Framework (CTF).

The U.K.’s data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has today issued guidance setting out how it intends to approach the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Although the U.K. left the European Union on 31 January 2020, the GDPR continues to apply as an EU Regulation during the transition period (which...