Karen Collins

Protecting children’s data

Navigating the rules around protecting children’s data is not an easy task as the law struggles to keep pace with the seismic advances in information sharing in today’s online world. Mairead O’Reilly outlines some of the headline rules that apply to the processing of children’s data in the UK.
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IR35 – postponed to April 2021

The government has announced that the roll-out of IR35 to medium and large private-sector companies has been postponed by a year. The new deadline is 6 April 2021. that the roll-out of IR35 to medium and large private-sector companies has been postponed by a year. The new deadline is 6 April 2021. IR35 would have required …
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Coronavirus and the impact on court/tribunal hearings

With the recent protective measures introduced by the UK government, there is considerable uncertainty as to how the administration of justice can continue to function properly. Naturally, the situation is changing all the time with Government public health guidance updating regularly so it is important to keep up to speed. The Lord Chief Justice has, …
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Coronavirus and your organisation (17 March)

Employment issues: what if working from home is not an option? Following the government’s advice that people avoid non-essential contact, many organisations will be asking their staff to work from home. But what options are left when working from home is not possible? In the coming weeks, some organisations may face difficult decisions regarding staffing. …
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Charity regulation: coronavirus latest

As COVID-19 continues to cause disruption in the day-to-day operations of charities, the Charity Commission, OSCR and the Fundraising Regulator have all published advice. Charity Commission and OSCR Both the Charity Commission for England and Wales and the Office for the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) have issued statements reminding charities to follow public health advice …
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Coronavirus and your staff: what if working from home is not an option?

Following the government’s advice that people avoid non-essential contact, many organisations will be asking their staff to work from home. But what options are left when working from home is not possible? Please see our latest update on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme here. We examine what routes are available in this situation – and …
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Our commitment to clients during coronavirus

As a result of the current situation regarding coronavirus (COVID-19) We are following government and best-practice guidelines to avoid any preventable risks. We have already advised people, in line with government guidelines, to work from home. We have been an agile office for over two years so we are fully equipped to continue to deliver …
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The ICO and GDPR enforcement: Victoria Hordern writes for Privacy Laws & Business UK

In the latest edition of Privacy Laws & Business UK, Victoria provides her views on how the ICO has sought to enforce the GDPR. Victoria begins her article with a summary of what the GDPR seeks to do, namely to ‘strengthen the rights of individuals and the powers of regulators’ whilst adopting a deliberately anti-trust …
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Updating your template contracts in light of upcoming changes

As readers will be aware, under Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 organisations are required to provide employees with a written statement containing certain basic terms of their employment. With effect from 6 April 2020, there are a number of substantive changes to: the requirements regarding what information needs to be included in …
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Suspension: a bridge too far?

We are often asked to advise charities and social enterprises about whether they can or should suspend employees where there are concerns about their conduct. Lucy McLynn advises charity and social enterprise employers to be very cautious when considering suspension of an employee.
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ICO warns schools about use of children’s images

What are the rules around using photographs of children? Do we need to get parental/ PR* holder consent for every child in a group photo? These are questions that regularly vex organisations and parents alike. And no organisations more so than schools. The ICO has published a blog highlighting legal warnings that it has issued …
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The Government’s quick solution to cutting migration – make it unaffordable

Hidden away in last week’s budget news was confirmation that the Immigration Health Surcharge will be increasing from October 2020.  This will pose a significant additional cost on employers and visa applicants and it should be noted that this cost will also apply to new arrivals from the EU from 1 January 2021. The new …
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