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• UK Commercial Lease Reforms: Law Commission Reviews Landlord and Tenant Act 1954

  In March 2023, the Law Commission revealed its plan to review the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (“the 1954 Act”) as part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s wider initiative to revitalise high streets and town centres. The Law Commission, which is independent of Government, aims to create a legal framework which...

• MHRA Consults on New UK Pre-Market Medical Device Measures

  Last month we provided an update on the UK Government’s draft post-market surveillance statutory instrument (“PMS SI”) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (“MHRA’s”) intention to run a further public consultation on proposed changes to pre-market medical device regulation under an upcoming statutory instrument (“Pre-Market SI”). On 14 November 2024, the MHRA launched a consultation on...

• Government’s Better Regulation Committee savages UK Employment Rights Bill provisions

  Here’s a sentence you don’t see very often, but hats off to the Regulatory Policy Committee for its excoriating review last week of the thinking behind the new Employment Rights Bill. The RPC is a body set up by the Labour government in 2009 as part of its Better Regulation Framework to ensure that the...

• I have the power – UK court confirms the ability of sole directors to make decisions

  Following the decisions in Fore Fitness and Active Wear – where the court examined the validity of decisions made by a sole director of a company that operated wholly or partly under the Model Articles[1]– the position was not entirely settled. In the context of administration appointments where the validity of an appointment rests on...

• MHRA Consults on New UK Pre-Market Medical Device Measures

  Last month we provided an update on the UK Government’s draft post-market surveillance statutory instrument (“PMS SI”) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (“MHRA’s”) intention to run a further public consultation on proposed changes to pre-market medical device regulation under an upcoming statutory instrument (“Pre-Market SI”). On 14 November 2024, the MHRA...

• Virtual and Digital Health Digest – November 2024

  This digest covers key virtual and digital health regulatory and public policy developments during October and early November 2024 from the United Kingdom and European Union. Regulatory and legislative reform is on the horizon in both the UK and in the EU, which will impact software and artificial intelligence (AI) medical devices. The UK government recently published...

• Preparing for the UK’s New Online Safety Regime: Timeline and Key Phases

  The UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) is a landmark law that will require companies to make online services “safe by design” for all individuals, with a particularly high standard of protection required for children. The OSA was enacted in 2023, and its obligations will come into force in phases throughout 2025 and 2026. This blog...

• UK Failure to Prevent Fraud Offence Widens Net for Corporate Criminal Liability

  On 6 November 2024, the UK government published its long-awaited Guidance for the new offence of failure to prevent fraud (FTP Fraud Offence), which will come into force on 1 September 2025. The FTP Fraud Offence was introduced via the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA) and represents the latest tool in UK law-enforcement armoury...

• Leave us bald guys alone!

  This one hits close to home. In Tony Finn v. British Bung Company, a UK tribunal ruled that calling a man “bald” constitutes sexual harassment. Why? Because baldness disproportionately affects men, the comment was deemed inherently tied to sex. The insult—a crude “bald c—“—was judged degrading, offensive, and gender-based. But let’s take this across the...

• Amendments to UK Visas & Immmigration Priority Service for Sponsor changes of circumstance

  As many sponsors will know, the Home Office offers a priority change of circumstances service, allowing sponsors to request by email the prioritisation of certain Home Office sponsor-related actions (many of which are vital to their being able to progress a visa application). Without this service, the standard processing time for these requests of around...

Featured documents

• Campylobacter jejuni reveals genetic markers predictive of infection source

  November 1, 2005 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Volume 102, Number 44, 16043-16048 Olivia L. Champion *, Michael W. Gaunt *, Ozan Gundogdu *, Abdi Elmi *, Adam A. Witney {dagger}, Jason Hinds {dagger}, Nick Dorr Published: 01.nov.05 *Department of Infectious and Tropical...

• Copper better than stainless steel for food safety, scientists say

  By Ahmed ElAmin 20/07/2006 – That copper cooking kettle may provide better protection against foodborne bacteria than a stainless steel one, according to scientists. The study suggests that the use of cast copper alloys during food processing may help prevent cross-contamination of E. coli better...

• European employee fired for blog wins claim versus employer

  The UK’s Workplace Law Network reports that an English employee fired for blogging won a claim against her employer. Catherine Sanderson’s ‘La Petite Anglaise‘ blog included her musings on her home and work life. Her employer, accountancy firm Dixon Wilson, was never named. Sanderson also remained...

• Cats predict death, dogs forestall disease

  Not only can dogs detect bladder cancer, but animals generally seem to have a sixth sense for illness and even imminent death. The BBC World News reports on Oscar, the cat whose “show of affection has been used to warn families that their loved one has not long to go.” Another case involves a dog......

• Doing Well By Doing Good

  Via To The People comes this story out of the UK: A policeman alerted hundreds of families to the danger-drug Strawberry Meth – despite the fact it does not exist. Pupils and parents at 80 schools in Oxfordshire were warned of the possible risks of the fruit-flavoured drug, also known as Strawberry ...

• Asbestos Litigation – Will the UK Reinstate Compensation for Pleural Plaques ?

  How should governments and courts decide/define when persons have a condition that should warrant payment of compensation through tort claims or through government agency programs ? The question is relevant in many settings, but the issues I know best relate to asbestos litigation. The question is...

• UK Food Poisoning Terrorist Sentenced To Nine Years in Prison

  After reading today’s BBC News article about convicted Gloucester, England chemist, Sahnoun Daifallah, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for spraying a disgusting and dangerous concoction of urine and feces on various food items in Gloucestershire supermarkets, I began to wonder…what if...

• Capturing Knowledge: If You've Highlighted Everything, You've Learned Nothing

  Reading Patrick Lambe’s Green Chameleon post entitled “Memory and Infantilism” reminded me of a saying I heard in law school about identifying what is, and what is not important. Lambe discusses the total screw-up that NASA did with the Lunar tapes, and the UK police did in losing important files...

• Former UK Information Commissioner Richard Thomas CBE Joins Hunton & Williams

  Hunton & Williams is pleased to announce that Richard Thomas CBE, the former UK Information Commissioner, has joined the firm as Global Strategy Adviser.  Richard Thomas was the UK’s Information Commissioner from November 2002 until his retirement at the end of June 2009.  He was appointed by HM...

• Bankr.M.D.Fla.: UK insurance giant Lloyd’s of London stymied by strategic use of Florida’s 2-year non-claim statute; PR has no fiduciary duties prior to getting appointed

  In re Estate of Harrison, Slip Copy, 2010 WL 503077 (Bankr.M.D.Fla. Jan 29, 2010) An overarching theme of Florida’s probate code is the tension between basic due-process rights on the one hand and Florida’s strong public policy favoring the speedy administration of estates on the other. Florida’s 2-...