Legal News

The UK ought to introduce a fresh whistleblower reward programme, giving company insiders a reason to steer investigators towards decisive, smoking‑gun material that can tip the balance in intricate economic crime cases, according to Nick Ephgrave, director of the SFO. Ephgrave warned of a ‘brain drain’ as tipsters head to the US to benefit from American agencies that pay for vital evidence. The chief of the white‑collar watchdog made the remarks at the unveiling of a new Royal United Services Institute ( RUSI) report urging a government consultation on the issue. Detectives trawling vast troves of digital data are, he said, ‘scrambling around in the dark’, hunting for crucial details that whistleblowers could readily highlight if they had a clear incentive. ‘ The risks often cited here...amount to an irrefutable case for this country,’ Ephgrave said. ‘ Why, frankly, are we so...

Jonathan Reeves dismissal and discrimination during paternity leave Employment Judge Louise Brown found, in a judgment released on 4 December 2024, that Jonathan Reeves — formerly the deputy global head of Goldman Sachs’ compliance-focused “control room” — was unfairly dismissed and subjected to discrimination during his paternity leave when the bank decided to make him redundant. The decision dated 8 November 2024 records that all the alleged detriments occurred while he was on parental leave, a time intended for bonding with and caring for children, and highlights a marked coincidence between those acts and his absence. Reeves worked at the bank for 15 years, from 2007 until his dismissal for redundancy in December 2022, according to the decision. He maintained that he was edged out by senior managers because he took a six-month period of paternity leave......

In this issue: Pay Tax Prohibited conduct (discrimination etc) Employment tribunal equality claims Individual rights arising from trade union membership Financial services and banking: employment issues Employment Tribunals Civil courts and alternative dispute resolution Immigration Northern Ireland New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Employment resources on Lexis+® Daily and weekly news alerts Pay High Pay Centre proposes ‘ Charter for Fair Pay’ to address income inequality and enhance worker rights The High Pay Centre, working with academic specialists, has issued a detailed ‘ Charter for Fair Pay’ setting out policy changes designed to tackle income inequality and strengthen worker rights in the UK. The charter advances ten principal actions across four domains: employment rights, corporate governance, investment and stewardship, and...

Davda v Institute and Faculty of Actuaries [2024] EWCA Civ 1460 The Court of Appeal dismissed Roopesh Davda’s allegation that the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries ( IFA) treated Indian nationals more favourably by offering them additional chances to pass examinations. The court held that the IFA did not discriminate against Davda by recognising results achieved by Indian nationals in the Indian Actuarial Institute’s ( IAI) twice‑yearly exams, in parallel with its own half‑yearly sittings. Giving the judgment for the three‑judge panel, Lady Justice Elisabeth Laing explained that the IFA had no control over when, or how often, the IAI held its examinations—the IAI being the Indian professional body for actuaries. The Employment Tribunal therefore erred in deciding that this constituted ‘treatment’ by the IFA towards Davda. Laing LJ clarified that the treatment the IFA afforded Mr Davda was, and only was, permitting him two...

Carozzi v The University of Hertfordshire [2025] IRLR 179 ( EAT) The EAT has decided that Elaine Carozzi’s allegations that managers at the University of Hertfordshire harassed and victimised her must be looked at again. Judge James Tayler explained that the tribunal below assessed whether the university’s behaviour was ‘because’ of her race, instead of applying the correct test of whether it was ‘related to’ race. However, this outcome does not disturb the earlier decision that set aside most of her claims, including every claim of religious discrimination and constructive dismissal. Judge Tayler stated that the tribunal’s mistaken approach to harassment was so serious that all rulings on the complaint about the claimant’s accent are unsafe and need to be determined afresh. His observations appear in a decision issued on 27 November 2024. Carozzi resigned while still serving probation, having been employed as a...

Business Minister Justin Madders has set out plans to double the period staff have to lodge most employment claims, outlined within a 59-page schedule of amendments to the bill. A six-month timeframe already applies for submitting equal pay cases and statutory redundancy claims. Several changes are far-reaching. One proposal would create a statutory probation period lasting three to nine months, linked to the section of the law that removes the current rule requiring two years’ continuous service before bringing an unfair dismissal claim. A further amendment would bar gig economy firms from relying on substitution clauses in their contracts, a common device used to sidestep higher pay and tax liabilities. Extending the deadline for claims was a policy advanced by the government during the general election campaign and is included in its ‘ Make Work Pay’ programme......

In this issue: Horizon scanning Public sector Pay Benefits Tax Protected characteristics Maternity, parents, and carers Corporate governance Financial services and banking: employment issues Bribery, modern slavery, tax evasion and fraud Settlement Employment Tribunals Northern Ireland Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Employment resources on Lexis+® Daily and weekly news alerts Horizon scanning RPC publishes red-rated opinion on Employment Rights Bill Impact Assessments The Regulatory Policy Committee has issued its view on the Employment Rights Bill’s Impact Assessments, rating them not fit for purpose. The Bill, which intends to revise employment rights, redundancy procedures and labour market enforcement, was examined via a summary IA and 23 standalone IAs. Eight of those individual assessments were found wanting, with six in the highest impact bracket. The RPC advises adding...

As the financial sector awaits the FCA’s policy statement on non-financial misconduct—intended to finalise the rule changes consulted on in September 2023—the regulator, in October 2024, released the findings of its survey on non-financial misconduct. In short, the FCA expects: senior leadership and boards of directors to discuss, challenge and properly oversee non-financial misconduct firms to maintain robust systems and controls that identify and address workplace issues, and firms to take immediate steps to ensure they have effective policies and practices in place The results In February 2024, the FCA issued a compulsory information request to more than 1,000 regulated wholesale financial services firms concerning non-financial misconduct. The FCA requested data and information from 2021 to 2023 on: the number of non-financial misconduct incidents logged by type or category, and how those incidents were detected the number of non-financial misconduct incidents recorded by incident type or category and the...

Deksne v Ambitions Ltd [2024] EAT 171 The EAT, in a recently published judgment, held that the temporary employment agency business Ambitions Ltd had underpaid a former temp by just under £500. Andrew Burns KC, acting as a deputy judge of the High Court, also determined that the employment tribunal had erred in dismissing Deksne’s claim that the holiday pay underpayments did not constitute a ‘series of deductions’. Judge Burns stated that the tribunal was plainly mistaken to decide the deductions were out of time on the footing they were not a series......

In this issue: Individual rights arising from union membership Pay Tax Prohibited conduct (discrimination etc) Diversity and gender pay gap Whistleblowing Bribery, modern slavery, tax evasion and fraud Employment Tribunals Wales IRLR Highlights— December 2024 Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Employment resources on Lexis+® Daily and weekly news alerts Individual rights arising from union membership Supreme Court unanimously confirms that a trade union can rely on third party rights under C( RTP) A 1999 to secure a check-off term in an employment contract. In Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v Public and Commercial Services Union [2024] UKSC 41, the Supreme Court— Lord Sales and Lady Rose delivering the principal judgment—allowed the Public and Commercial Services Union’s appeal. The Court held that the...

Failure to prevent fraud by a corporate organisation On 6 November 2024, the UK Home Office issued long-awaited guidance on the new ‘failure to prevent fraud by a corporate organisation’ offence, commonly referred to as the corporate fraud offence. This development adds another avenue for an expanding cohort of claimants to pursue companies over climate-related matters, including alleged greenwashing. It represents one, albeit major, component within a shifting environmental compliance regime. As frameworks mature, businesses must move quickly to remain compliant. At the same time, a broader mix of actors—from regulators such as the Advertising Standards Authority ( ASA) and the Competition and Markets Authority ( CMA) to non-governmental bodies focused on environmental concerns—is adopting more sophisticated and forceful tactics to shape corporate conduct. Consequently, the legal pathways for environmental compliance claims have multiplied and grown more imaginative, with novel arguments pushed into areas once...

Fairbanks v Change Grow Live , ET Case Number:2409700/2023 Employment Judge Paul Humble, in a decision released on 18 November 2024, found that the drug and alcohol rehabilitation charity Change Grow Live did not subject the claimant, Mrs Fairbanks, to unfair treatment on the grounds of philosophical belief. The judge concluded that Fairbanks had not, in fact, advanced any philosophical beliefs. ' A claimant cannot simply come to a hearing, set out four views, however sincerely held, and expect them to qualify as philosophical beliefs. Nor does belonging to a political party, on its own, amount to a philosophical belief', the tribunal determined formally......

Zurich UK press release (14 November 2024) Almost a third (31%) of 1,000 neurodivergent adults surveyed said their job applications were rejected once they disclosed a condition such as autism, dyslexia, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A further 28% reported being declined for subjective reasons, including their communication style or perceived fit within a team. The study, conducted by One Poll and published on 14 November 2024, also showed 27% received remarks about their capabilities, while another 25% said recruiters stopped responding after they revealed they were neurodivergent. Findings additionally indicated that 21% had been laughed at because of their condition, and 16% saw job offers withdrawn following disclosure. Consequently, nearly two thirds, 63%, of neurodivergent adults think employers view neurodiversity as a ‘red flag’, according to the UK division of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd......

Background to the appeal The question on this appeal concerns when a trade union may litigate, as a third party, for breach of an employment contract between employer and worker. Sections 1(1)(b) and 1(3) of the Contracts ( Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 ( C( RTP) A 1999) create a default rule: where a contractual term grants a benefit to a third party who is expressly identified in the instrument, that third party can enforce the term in its own name. It applies only where the beneficiary is expressly identified within the contract and thereby conferred a benefit. The appeal turns on the proper reading of section 1(2) C( RTP) A 1999, which states that the default position is displaced if, construing the contract correctly, it appears the parties did not intend the term to be actionable by the third party. The...

What does the government guidance tells us about what reasonable procedures businesses are expected to take to avoid committing the new failure to prevent fraud offence? Government guidance explains the steps expected of businesses to avoid liability for the new failure to prevent fraud offence. Relevant organisations can rely on a defence to FTPF where they have reasonable procedures to prevent fraud (in this context, fraud intended to benefit the organisation), or if they can show it was not reasonable to expect any prevention measures at all. The Guidance to organisations on the offence of failure to prevent fraud (the Guidance) outlines, in broad terms, the procedures companies may adopt to deter associated persons from committing fraud offences. It states that a company’s FTPF framework should be shaped by six principles: top level commitment risk assessment ...

In this issue: Collective agreements Public sector Status and worker categories Immigration Cross-border, international and jurisdictional issues Tax Prohibited conduct (discrimination etc) Corporate governance ESG and sustainability: employment issues Bribery, modern slavery, tax evasion and fraud Unfair dismissal Employment Tribunals New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers New Q& As Employment resources on Lexis+® Daily and weekly news alerts Collective agreements Supreme Court determines that mistakes in collective agreements incorporated into employment contracts can be rectified In Unite the Union v Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive T/ A Nexus [2024] UKSC 37, a unanimous Supreme Court, delivered in a joint judgment by Lord Leggatt and Lady Simler, affirmed the Court of Appeal’s decision and dismissed Nexus’s bid to rectify a...

Unite the Union and another v Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive T/ A Nexus [2024] UKSC 37 Background to the appeal This appeal concerns whether the written memorandum or record of a collective agreement—intended not to create legal obligations—can be corrected by rectification, and likewise whether employment contracts that import the provisions of such a collective agreement are themselves susceptible to rectification. It further poses issues about who the proper claimants and defendants should be in proceedings of this kind, as well as whether an employment tribunal possesses jurisdiction to determine them. The Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, commonly referred to as Nexus, runs the Tyne and Wear Metro. Nexus commenced proceedings against two autonomous trade unions acknowledged as entitled to conduct collective bargaining on behalf of its workforce and employees. Those unions are the National Union of Rail, Maritime and...

The European Union’s executive body intends to reduce the administrative burden by drafting a single, wide‑ranging law that ‘draws from numerous dossiers to curb bureaucracy, to lighten reporting obligations’, the Commission President told assembled journalists during a press conference. Von der Leyen’s statement followed a meeting of EU heads of state and government held on 8 November 2024 in Budapest, where they......

The FRC confirmed it has proposed amendments within its consultation on updates to the UK stewardship code, prompted by criticism that the present definition suggests stewardship’s primary aim is to advance environmental and social objectives. Richard Moriarty, the FRC’s chief executive, said the consultation represents a significant development of the code, ensuring it sustains strong standards of stewardship in a way that remains proportionate and continues to support UK growth. He added that, in doing so, the intention is to further enhance the UK’s appeal as a leading global destination for capital and its management. However, the FRC noted that its updated and strengthened definition still emphasises the......

Bandi and Others v Bolt Operations OU and another ( Case No 2206953/2021) A press summary was issued by the tribunal to clarify the judgment. It rejected Bolt’s main arguments that it merely acted as an agent between drivers and passengers, and that an account function allowing drivers to register other drivers meant they were not required to perform work themselves—an important signifier of employment status. The panel, chaired by Judge Anthony Snelson, concluded that any supposed right to use a substitute did not remove the obligation of personal service and was irrelevant to the proper analysis of worker status. This ruling opens the way for Bolt drivers to claim the minimum wage, sick pay and other statutory entitlements. However, Bolt has since withdrawn a policy obliging drivers to accept a set proportion of ride offers, a consideration that had been central to the...