Regulatory requirements are increasing, both nationally and internationally, and understanding and implementing the plethora of guidance and regulations relevant to running your organisation is daunting. At the same time, civil and criminal enforcement and recovery powers are extensive with recent significant increases in financial penalties and sentences handed down by the courts. Failure to comply can be costly and severely damaging to your brand, reputation and sales. It could lead to dawn raids, unexpected visits from the Health and Safety Executive, Environment Agency, Trading Standards and ultimately the Police as part of time-consuming regulatory investigations or prosecutions. Many of the sanctions for breaches of regulatory offences are criminal or quasi-criminal with company directors and officers facing personal liability. We help you navigate the relevant regulatory framework, provide thorough, balanced and pragmatic advice on regulatory risk management as well as being available to you 24 hours a day in the event of incidents, accidents or unannounced visits by the regulators.
Our expert regulatory team, which includes a number of criminal lawyers, undertakes both defence and prosecution giving us a unique understanding and ability to negotiate for clients involved in an investigations and enforcement action. We work closely with our civil litigation colleagues who advise on any commercial disputes or civil claims for compensation that often follow a regulatory investigation.
Representing clients, before the Traffic Commissioner and in connection with Operators Licences.
Advising in respect of road traffic offences including construction and use, dangerous and careless driving, death by dangerous or careless driving, policy reviews regarding mobile phones, satellite navigation and CCTV, loading and unloading, traffic management.
Advising numerous care home providers in connection with CQC registration and appeals including appeal to the First Tier Tribunal.
Advising many NHS bodies respect of CQC inspection and ratings.
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"The wide in-house services they have and relevant experience they offer on health and safety matters stand out."
"The team is always available. They put in the effort for the client and are client focused rather than self-focused. They are very well organised and manage cases exceptionally well."
"The team contains individuals who complement each other’s strengths. This is very important as clients get the right people at the right level for a case or particular matter."
"The advice given by the team is tailored to meet the particular legal issues well as the client’s individual circumstances."
Logistics company Eddie Stobart has been fined £133,000, after a series of failures which took place whilst excavation work was carried out, exposing its staff to asbestos.
This article is the second in a series to help firms take a practical approach to complying with the ‘cross-cutting rules’ within the new ‘Consumer Duty’ (CD) framework. The article summarises what it seems the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seeking to achieve from the applicable rules (section 2 below) and potential complications arising from legal considerations (section 3).
Two directors of a construction company were fined after failing to ensure the safe removal of asbestos from a plot of land. On 14 and 15 November 2021, Directors Anthony Sumner and Neil Brown, of Waterbarn Limited were involved in the uncontrolled removal of asbestos material from a plot of land in Grasscroft, Oldham.
An engineering company in Tyne and Wear was fined £20,000 after a worker fractured his pelvis and suffered internal injuries after falling through a petrol station forecourt canopy, whilst he was replacing the guttering.
The Digital Services Act (the “DSA”) has today (27 October) been given the go-ahead by the EU Council and will enter into force by early 2024.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have announced they will be carrying out a programme of inspections to primary and secondary school establishments from September 2022. The inspections will assess how schools are managing the risks from asbestos and meeting the Duty to Manage requirements, set out in Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
This article is the first in a series aimed to help firms get to grips on a practical basis with the ‘cross-cutting rules’ within the new ‘Consumer Duty’ framework.
The Government has announced a change to the categorisation of “small” businesses to reduce the amount of regulatory compliance (or “red tape”) required. Currently, SMEs (those with fewer than 250 employees) are exempt from certain regulations – such as the obligation to comply with gender pay reporting. With effect from 3 October, these exemptions will be widened to apply to businesses with fewer than 500 employees.
The use of social media platforms and applications can have overwhelmingly positive benefits for public bodies. However, regulatory action recently taken by the Information Commissioner, has highlighted various pitfalls that public bodies should seek to avoid if allowing staff to use social media as a communication tool.
Whilst the weather conditions are predicted to be cooling down this week, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is asking employers and businesses to consider adapting to recurrent warmer weather conditions for the safety and benefit of their staff. It asks employers to ensure that extreme heat becomes a firm part of longer term risk management. Climate change in any event is something all businesses will need to consider as the warmer weather becomes more frequent - extreme heat is something that will impact employers on a day to day basis.
In this session, our speakers discussed the Fitness to Practise Regime and how we can help.
The Building Safety Act 2022 received Royal Assent on 28 April 2022 (“Act”). The government has described the reforms introduced by the Act as “the biggest changes to building safety regulation in a generation”. For once the hype is justified.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has released a report setting out the impact of new and changing regulations arising from the pandemic on small businesses across the UK.
We have created a summary of the recommendations and consistent themes which we are now starting to see becoming more embedded in public sector procurement practices.
Public sector and private sector organisations, particularly those who meet the £36 million threshold, are encouraged to review their approach to combating modern slavery in their organisation and its supply chains before the Modern Slavery Bill becomes law.
In anticipation of the adoption of the Building Safety Bill, our specialist compliance and regulatory team will give an overview of the measures proposed in the Bill.
The new regime introduced by the Act will take shape over the next 18 months, but those who design, build or manage high rise buildings are being urged to get ready for the changes to be introduced through the act.
There are a number of factors which have contributed to the crisis including the huge increase in wholesale natural gas prices, which have risen some 250% since the start of 2021. Since the start of last year, over 30 energy firms have gone bust in the UK alone.
Financial crime is an increasing threat to all organisations. The modes of facilitating fraud have become easier. Being a victim of fraud as an organisation risks significant financial consequences, but also serious reputational harm and loss of stakeholder confidence.
In March the government proposed a number of changes to the Building Safety Bill. The new amendments propose additional protection for leaseholders to prevent them from being charged for cladding work if they own up to three properties.
The HSE has announced a campaign targeting health and safety in the construction industry in Birmingham. The Campaign is in response to a significant increase in development across the city, partly as a result of preparations for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Earlier this year, the government recommended that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) bring "competitiveness" back into its regulatory agenda. In a letter to the FCA, the government stated that it wanted the UK to be "globally competitive" while encouraging the FCA to "promote competition" in financial services.
Did the Government breach procurement rules when they appointed Public First for the provision of focus group & communication support services?
Watch our webinar on-demand. Issues discussed: summary of the COP26 outputs, predictions for further commitments at COP27, and more.
The Tribunal considered whether a care home worker was unfairly dismissed following her refusal to be vaccinated against Covid-19. It is important to note the Claimant’s dismissal pre-dated the compulsory vaccination regulations in force from November 2021.
More needs to be made of these procurement routes, with clients honouring the original concept rather than watering down concepts.
From 1st January, new import rules come into effect, with potential for significant delay, disruption and cost for importers and exporters.
There is much still to learn about how the strategy will be implemented and those details will play a huge part in determining the final outcome. However, there are grounds for optimism.
A ResPublica report highlighted that asbestos continues to be the UK’s number one occupational killer, with nurses and teachers 3 to 5 times more likely to develop mesothelioma than the general UK population. The House of Commons Work & Pensions Select Committee is investigating how the HSE manages the continued presence of asbestos in buildings.
SMEs need to get a handle on their carbon footprints now to help identify where carbon, and financial savings can be made.
As you probably know by now, the acronym 'ESG' stands for environmental, social and governance. Although the investment community initially coined the term, it has grown into a larger concept that can be applied more broadly to any business or practice.
With a new 10-year strategy in the pipeline, will this focus continue and what is this likely to mean for HSE inspection and enforcement activities?
The Modern Slavery (Amendment) Bill recently started its journey through Parliament. Find out more.
The Government is consulting on plans to modernise the country’s audit and corporate governance regime, building on the recommendations of three recent independent reviews with the goal of restoring business confidence by implementing reforms to improve the quality of corporate reporting.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) published an updated guidance note for anti-money laundering supervisors targeted at improving the quality of suspicious activity reports (SARs) to make the best possible use of SARs and to minimise unnecessary delays, particularly where a defence against money laundering (DAML) has been sought.
On 17 March 2020 a report by Clive Sheldon QC was published. He had been appointed by the FA back in December 2016 to carry out an independent review into allegations of sexual abuse by coaches and scouts working in youth football between 1970 and 2005.
The Home Office has now launched a central registry for section 54 statements, a central registry for statements prepared in accordance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA).
