Updates

People and Workplace round-up

Welcome to our round-up of 5 minute People and Workplace updates hand-picked to help HR teams. Catch up on: Unfair dismissal: clarification on contributory conduct relations The Employment Appeal Tribunal (“EAT”) has clarified how tribunals should approach reductions to compensation for contributory conduct in unfair dismissal cases and how requests for reinstatement should be dealt …
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Drawing the lines: mutuality, control, and the tax test for employment status

On 1 May 2026, the First Tier (Tax) Tribunal (“FTT”) found that, despite HMRC’s assertions to the contrary, certain referees engaged by Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (“PGMOL”) were self-employed, rather than employed, for tax purposes (see the case here). This decision is the latest (though possibly not the last) installment in a long running …
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House of Lords report on Settlement, Citizenship and Integration: key findings and policy implications

The House of Lords’ Justice and Home Affairs Committee (the ‘Committee’) released its report on Settlement, Citizenship and Integration on 23rd June. This critical report suggests that immigration policy has been too reactive and has been developed in the absence of adequate data, impact assessment, operational capacity or cross-governmental cooperation. Ultimately it opposes key proposals …
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Managing charity financial distress: key takeways from our roundtable

Following on from our March webinar on Managing Financial Difficulties, Bates Wells and FRP Advisory hosted a Financial Management Roundtable on the 10th June which explored the challenges facing charities in the current funding environment. There was a particular focus on trustee duties in distress, early warning signs of financial difficulty, and practical approaches to …
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Briefing for Charities & Social Enterprises | 23 June

Our weekly round-up of news and updates from across the sector. To help you navigate this week’s content, the links below will take you straight to content by topic. Investigations and complaints The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into St Andrew’s Healthcare.  This comes after a regulatory compliance case into concerns about safeguarding …
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The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 – A refresher of the changes to UK data protection law and developments to date

What has happened so far? It has been a year since the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (“DUAA”) received Royal Assent on 19 June 2025. Now that all of the data protection provisions have come into force, with various new pieces of ICO Guidance to supplement them, we wanted to take the opportunity to give …
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Immigration update: sponsor licence compliance for faith-based organisations

Faith-based organisations play a significant role in the UK’s migration system, regularly sponsoring overseas workers to fill specialist religious roles. Although sector-specific data is not published by the UKVI, it is widely understood that many of the UK’s 140,000 sponsor licence holders are prominent faith-based organisations. However, it is a challenging time to be a …
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Briefing for Charities & Social Enterprises | 16 June

Our weekly roundup of news and updates from across the sector. To help you navigate this week’s content, the links below will take you straight to content by topic. Charity Commission New grant-making guidance We have now looked at the Charity Commission’s new guidance for charities making grants to charities and other organisations in more …
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Impact Economy momentum: Social investment, collaboration and solutions rooted in the community

With strong support from Government and stakeholders across sectors and markets all talking about the Impact Economy, it feels like we may be at a tipping point when impact can move ‘from margin to mainstream’. We felt this, for example, in the sheer scale of the Beacon Forum, which we attended earlier this year.  At …
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Have your say on the upcoming changes to zero and low hours contracts

On 2 June 2026, the Government launched a consultation on its proposals, in the Employment Rights Act 2025 (“ERA 2025”), to reform zero and low hours contracts. These proposals aim to put an “end to one-sided flexibility” in such contracts; by giving qualifying workers the right to be offered guaranteed hours if they work regular …
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Strategic M&A for Awarding Organisations: a practical legal guide to doing it safely

Mergers and acquisitions can help Awarding Organisations (AOs) scale, enter new markets, and broaden their qualification portfolios, but they also introduce real legal, regulatory, and governance risk if they’re not planned carefully. Because most AOs are also charities, you’ll usually need to navigate both the Ofqual General Conditions of Recognition and charity law. This article …
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Why media tech is central to the UK’s tech and talent strategy

Media tech, where creative industries, digital platforms, adtech, createch, gaming and AI-enabled content are rapidly converging, plays a big part in the UK’s tech strategy. But alongside long-term investment in infrastructure and innovation, the UK needs to deepen its pool of world class AI researchers and engineers. The talent is scarce, highly mobile and decisive …
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