Updates

Are you sleepwalking into significant liabilities in relation to UK based consultants?

Many US organisations appoint self-employed consultants to scope out the merits and practicalities of carrying out operations in the UK. While this often makes good sense, if a decision is subsequently taken to actively carry out those operations, the consultant is often the person who takes that on and so their role evolves. This evolution …
Read more

Phasing out of Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) and other paper-based residence documents: what you need to know

What is happening? For nearly a decade, migrants in the UK have been issued with a plastic ID card called a Biometric Residence Permit, which they can use to prove their residence rights – this is now all about to change. By the end of the year, the Home Office is seeking to phase-out physical …
Read more

Has your organisation been affected by the FTX fallout?

If you’ve been following the news over the last few months, and in particular the last couple of weeks, you’ll have seen the headlines surrounding Sam Bankman-Fried – the co-founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange platform, FTX, who oversaw the high profile failure of the business that was initially said to have cost its clients …
Read more

Face-to-face fundraising – Fundraising Regulator publishes market inquiry report

On 26 March 2024, the Fundraising Regulator reported the findings of its market inquiry into subcontracting in face-to-face fundraising. The inquiry, consisting of a series of fact-finding workshops held with representatives from charities and fundraising agencies, was launched following a rapid expansion in face-to-face fundraising post-pandemic, heightened media scrutiny, and an increase in complaints and …
Read more

The future of litigation funding post PACCAR

On 19 March 2024, the Ministry of Justice published draft legislation to reverse the Supreme Court’s controversial July 2023 decision in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc) v Competition Appeal Tribunal [2023] UKSC 28 (PACCAR), where it was held that litigation funding agreements (LFAs) can be damages-based agreements (DBAs) in circumstances where the funder …
Read more

Bates Wells and the EHRC supports Uber Eats driver who faced problematic AI checks

An Uber Eats driver received financial settlement following allegations that an AI facial recognition system, required to access the Uber Eats platform, was racially discriminatory. Pa Edrissa Manjang continuously experienced difficulties with Uber Eats’ verification system. In 2021, he was removed from the platform and told by Uber Eats that they had found ‘continued mismatches’ …
Read more

Holiday pay for irregular workers (and some positive developments for employers)

The question of how to pay holiday pay to workers working irregular hours has for many years been a vexed one. Rolling up holiday pay has technically been unlawful (although as a matter of pragmatism it has remained a wide-spread practice). In 2022 the Supreme Court in Harpur Trust v Brazel cast doubt on the …
Read more

EIIP and Bates Wells launch EDT Principles to address legal power imbalance

Bates Wells are delighted to announce the launch of the Equalising Deal Terms – Investor Key Principles (EDT Principles) today, an initiative co-led by Equality Impact Investing Project (EIIP) and Bates Wells (and supported by the Connect Fund) to address power imbalances and inequality in impact investing relationships. The EDT Principles are designed to support …
Read more

What’s still to come in 2024? Upcoming immigration changes

2024 has already been a year of rapid change for the UK’s most-used immigration routes. The rest of the year looks set to be no less eventful and in particular, important changes to both the Skilled Worker and partner routes will be coming into force in early April.   Common themes of the new measures …
Read more

New government approach to ‘extremism’

On Monday 11 March, the government announced that it had updated its definition of ‘extremism’, specifically stating that this is in response to ‘increased extremist threat since the October 7th attacks in Israel’. This definition will apply across government’s funding of and interaction with third parties under its new engagement principles. The definition of extremism …
Read more

Weaving the threads together: key insights from our panel discussion on sustainable fashion

On the 5 March, we were joined by Kresse Wessling (co-founder of Elvis & Kresse), Thea Cooper (Senior Business Manager of anti-slavery charity Unseen UK) and Safia Minney (founder of Fashion Declares) at our panel discussion exploring the potential for the fashion industry to be more sustainable as part of our B Corp month celebrations. …
Read more

Office for Students consultations on the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023: our headline recommendations

The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 is implementing new and more rigidly enforceable duties on students’ unions (SUs). They require, among other things, relevant SUs to take “reasonably practicable steps” to secure “freedom of speech within the law” for groups, including students and visiting speakers. The Act also expands the requirements applying to …
Read more