Immigration offences meaning

Within Scotland, minor offences proceed by way of a summary complaint. Summary procedure is governed under Part IX of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995...

In this edition: Employment contract Pay Protected characteristics Prohibited conduct (discrimination etc) Prohibited conduct protection at work Equality of terms (equal pay) Employment Appeal Tribunal Governance and regulatory Immigration Dates for your diary Trackers New Q&As Employment resources on Lexis+® Daily and weekly news alerts Employment contract UKSC upholds claimants’ appeal and restores injunction in Tesco ‘fire and rehire’ case In Tesco Stores Ltd v Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) [2024] UKSC 28, Tesco moved to end employees’ contracts to remove their ‘retained pay’—a contractual financial entitlement accepted as permanent—and to offer re-engagement on new terms excluding that pay. Working with the union, USDAW, several employees obtained a High Court injunction restraining Tesco from dismissing them in order to take away the retained pay entitlement. The Court of Appeal, however, allowed Tesco’s appeal against that order. The Supreme Court has since backed the claimants’ appeal and...

In this issue: Investigating criminal conduct Criminal procedure and evidence Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions Money laundering International Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Investigating criminal conduct Refusal to repurpose evidence in civil proceedings for criminal charging decision (WFZ v British Broadcasting Corp) The High Court has recently clarified the circumstances in which a party will be permitted to rely on witness statements outside the proceedings in which they were first served. In ongoing injunction proceedings aimed at stopping publication of a BBC investigative report into sexual abuse allegations, the court determined that the accused could not use sensitive excerpts from that report in representations to the...

In this issue: EU fundamentals Competition and state aid Corporate Data protection and cybersecurity Free movement, immigration and employment Financial services Environment Insurance and reinsurance IP Life sciences International trade Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers EU fundamentals European Commission releases January 2026 infringement package The European Commission has unveiled the January 2026 infringement package, identifying the Member States it is proceeding against for shortcomings in meeting obligations under EU law. This round features letters of formal notice to several Member States for not notifying complete transposition measures for multiple directives, including on financial services contracts concluded at a distance—Directive (EU) 2023/2673, on credit agreements for consumers—Directive (EU) 2023/2225, and on crypto‑asset tax transparency—Directive (EU) 2023/2226. It also covers failures to communicate national implementing measures for Directive (EU) 2023/2123, which aligns exchanges of information on terrorist offences with data protection rules, among other concerns. The...

Hackney carriages and private hire vehicles A ‘hackney carriage’ means a vehicle authorised to ‘ply for hire’, namely to offer a taxi service and stand on taxi ranks awaiting passengers. See the Practice Note: Taxi licensing. Plying for hire without a hackney carriage licence is an offence under section 45 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 (TPCA 1847). Touting for car hire services constitutes an offence by virtue of section 167 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (CJPOA 1994). See Practice Notes: Taxi touting or soliciting for hire, and Taxi and private hire vehicles enforcement. A ‘private hire vehicle’ is defined at section 80 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 (LG(MP)A 1976) as ‘a motor vehicle constructed or adapted to seat fewer than nine passengers, other than a hackney carriage or public service vehicle, or a London cab or tramcar, which is provided for hire with the services of a driver for the purpose of carrying passengers’. A ‘private hire vehicle’ must not...

Possessing extreme pornography Mere possession of extreme pornography constitutes an offence under section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (CJIA 2008). It is prosecuted more frequently than offences under the Obscene Publications Act 1959, because no act of publication needs to be shown, making it simpler to establish. Refer to Practice Note: Obscene publications. Pornography is distinct from obscenity: material deemed obscene may deprave and corrupt and might be violent or morally offensive; by contrast, the pornography offence focuses on sexual images that are gross or extreme in character. Pictures depicting extreme violence can amount to obscenity, yet they are not pornography unless they possess a sexual context or intent. The provision aims to curb the proliferation of extreme material and applies equally to online and offline contexts, covering both moving and still images, regardless of how they were created. It applies to moving and still images alike, by whatever means produced. While the possession offence intrudes upon an individual’s right to private life, its purpose...

Self-defence is an absolute defence to offences committed through force, extending even to allegations of murder. If a jury concludes the defendant acted in self-defence, they must acquit. The common law defence was carried into statute by the Criminal Law Act 1967 (CLA 1967), with additional clarification in section 76 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (CJIA 2008). The defence is available where a defendant uses ‘reasonable force’ to: defend themselves defend another person defend property prevent crime assist in the lawful arrest and apprehension of offenders The defence of self-defence has two limbs: firstly, were the circumstances, as the defendant genuinely believed them to be, such that using force was necessary? This is the subjective test secondly, was the nature and degree of force used reasonable in those perceived circumstances? This is the objective test Reasonable force—defendant’s genuine belief Whether the force is considered ‘reasonable’ is judged by reference...

Our Practice Note: Applying for a Workers and Temporary Workers sponsor licence: key personnel and representatives Our Practice Note sets out that a sponsor licence application can, and in some instances will, be declined or, where applicable, the licence later revoked, if any of the Authorising Officer, Key Contact, Level 1 user, or any owner, director or other individual involved in the day-to-day running of the organisation: has any unspent convictions relating to immigration offences or a number of listed serious offences in Part 1 of the Sponsor Guidance at Annex L4 (Part 1, para L4.3)—mandatory refusal of the application (Part 1 Annex L1(b)) and/or mandatory revocation of the licence (Part 3, Annex C1(b)) has previously been dishonest in their relationship with […] any other government department) […]—a licence application will normally be refused/existing licence will normally be ...