North London Solicitors

The damage resulting from the recent riots in London and other major cities will continue to impact on the lives of those homeowners and businesses caught up in the events for many weeks to come, as well as causing disruption to travel arrangements.

• keep in touch with each other – if you can't get to work, try to get in touch with your employer to let them know. If your business has been damaged, contact your employees to discuss work arrangements;

• be flexible about working hours and location, perhaps using smartphones and laptops to help you keep working where possible; and

• be fair – as an employer, try to take into account the circumstances surrounding absence or timekeeping issues before deciding on the action you might take in terms of leave and pay.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has made available a package of materials to help businesses comply with competition law. This includes:

•  Whether or not the organisation has issued a clear policy regarding gifts and hospitality;
•  Whether the expenditure in question was compliant with the policy and, if not, whether or not it had been sanctioned at the appropriate level within the organisation;
•  Whether or not  the expenditure was proportionate with regard to the status of the recipient;.
•   Whether or not the expenditure had been entered in the organisation’s books of account; and
•   The lawfulness of the receipt by the recipient under the laws of his or her own country.   

Despite the recent fall in corporate insolvencies, accountants PwC are predicting that company failures will rise during the year as the reductions in real incomes bite on consumer demand.

Lion Steel Equipment Ltd is to be charged with manslaughter unde rthe Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act  2007.

The prosecution follows the death of a man who fell through a roof panel. Three of the company’s directors are also to be charged with manslaughter on account of negligence.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has released provisional fatal injury statistics for the year April 2010 to March 2011. These show that the number of workers killed in Britain was 171, compared with an all time low of 147 deaths in the previous year. In 2008/09, 178 workers were killed. The rate of fatal injury is now 0.6 per 100,000 workers, up from 0.5 per 100,000 workers the previous year.  

• 50 fatal injuries to construction workers were recorded – a rate of 2.4 deaths per 100,000 workers, compared with an average of 61 deaths in the past five years and an increase from the 41 deaths (and rate of 1.9 per 100,000 workers) recorded in 2009/10;
• 34 fatal injuries to agricultural workers were recorded – a rate of 8.0 deaths per 100,000 workers, compared with an average of 35 deaths in the past five years and a fall from the 39 deaths (and rate of 10.4 per 100,000 workers) recorded in 2009/10; and
• Nine fatal injuries to waste and recycling workers were recorded – a rate of 8.7 deaths per 100,000 workers, compared with an average of eight deaths in the past five years and an increase from the three deaths (and rate of 2.8 per 100,000 workers) recorded in 2009/10.

When children are placed with foster parents, responsibility for them remains with the local council and the council retains the right to remove the children to a new foster home or to other prospective adopters. This right persists even if the foster parents have made an application to adopt a fostered child.

Two young children were prevented from being removed to Canada by their mother after the Court of Appeal ruled that to do so would not be in their best interests.

The Bribery Act 2010 came into force today.

Section 7 of the Act makes it an offence for a commercial organisation to fail to prevent bribery. A business can provide a defence by showing that it had in place adequate procedures to prevent bribery from taking place, however, and the guidance details the approach that should be taken when implementing such procedures. The overriding point is that these should be proportionate in view of the likelihood of bribery occurring, which will depend on the size of the business and the countries and markets in which it operates. Although the principles remain similar to those in the draft guidance, published in September 2010, the advice in the final version is more detailed.

Section 14 of the Act provides that where an offence is committed with the consent or connivance of a senior officer of an organisation, that person (as well as the body corporate or partnership) is guilty of the offence and liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

Under Section 11 of the Act, the maximum penalty for individuals is 10 years’ imprisonment or an unlimited fine, or both. The maximum penalty for commercial organisations is an unlimited fine.

For information on your responsibilities under the Act, see the quick-start guide on the Ministry of Justice website.