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Compulsory mediation: a sign of things to come

In July this year, the Ministry of Justice announced that mediation will soon be compulsory for money claims worth up to £10,000. The change, which follows a year-long consultation on increasing the use of mediation in the civil justice system, is the clearest sign yet of a decisive shift in approaches to mediation: from encouragement …
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New spending limits for non-party campaigners – what you need to know

Organisations and individuals that campaign ahead of an election (but are not standing candidates themselves) are known as ‘non-party campaigners’. Their activities can be subject to financial restrictions and transparency requirements – particularly during a regulated period. The regulated period is usually 365 days before a general election for ‘general campaigns’ (see below) – so, …
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Spotlight 2023: Real Estate law update

Daniel Farrow, a solicitor in our Real Estate team, shares practical advice on aligning your property strategy with your operational strategy as well as an update on recent real estate law developments including changes to the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) for landlords and tenants. Extra resources: Take a look at our Stay vs go …
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Spotlight 2023: Charity campaigning law update

Suhan Rajkumar, senior associate in our Politics, Elections and Campaigning team, provides practical commentary on campaigning law for charities including an overview and practical examples of the application of CC9, the Lobbying Act and PPERA. If you enjoyed this mini-webinar, catch up on our elections and campaigning resources below: Election ’24 factsheet series This series …
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Trustees’ Week 2023 – celebrating trustees across the UK

It’s Trustees’ Week and we are joining charities around the UK to celebrate the work that trustees do. There are currently over 1 million trustees in the UK working to make a positive impact and support their charities. They bring expertise and guidance to their organisation, from protecting the charities’ objectives to facilitating change and …
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Advised emissions: Towards a climate-aware advisory ecosystem

What are advised emissions and why do they matter? ‘Financed emissions’ refers to the emissions that arise from projects funded by investment. ‘Advertised emissions’ describes emissions that are generated by encouraging increased consumption, particularly of high-emissions products. For lawyers, ‘advised emissions’ are the emissions that we support our clients to generate by providing advice to …
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Creating impact: Bates Wells recognised by The Times Best Law Firms 2024

We’ve been commended by The Times Best Law Firms 2024 for our work for administrative and public law, charities, employment and immigration. The piece acknowledges the sad passing of Andrew Phillips earlier this year, commemorating his contribution to the legal world, and highlighting how Bates Wells continues to use the law as a force for …
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Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme: What you need to know when travelling to the UK

What is an ETA? An Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme has been launched as part of the UK government’s plans to strengthen the UK border through digitisation. The scheme will apply to most visitors to the UK who do not need a visa for stays of less than six months, and who do not have …
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AI – opportunities, threats and policy – an overview

AI will change the world.  As with previous innovations that revolutionised society, the nature of those changes are difficult to predict.  Legislators risk stifling innovation or imposing ineffective regulation if they act too hastily.  But gaps in regulation are also problematic because of the risk of discrimination, division and bias.  In the absence of clear …
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Environmental sustainability green light: CMA publishes green guidance

The UK now has its long-awaited competition and consumer focussed legal guidance on Green Agreements. It’s a great step forward in encouraging environmental sustainability agreements without fear of breaching competition law. Courtesy of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as of last week we now have our very own UK Green Agreements Guidance. Consumer-focussed …
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Borrowing the family silver… a new power for charities with permanent endowment

In the Law Commission’s consultation on technical charity law issues there were differing views on what should be done with funds that are held as permanent endowment (i.e. where the capital cannot be spent). Some were in favour of relaxing the regime for accessing the capital, while others felt that this would allow the charity …
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Bates Wells’ strategic litigation roundtable – considerations and managing risk

Strategic litigation has the potential to bring about lasting change and develop the legislative landscape. On 27 September 2023 we brought together a group of third sector leaders to explore the role that strategic litigation has in furthering the mission of charities, NGOs and others, and to talk about what barriers there are to taking …
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