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The Independent: Lucy McLynn on minimum wage investigations over volunteers for coronavirus testing

Lucy McLynn, partner in our Employment team, has provided comment to The Independent over the news that Boots could be risking investigation under minimum wage legislation after recruiting hundreds of volunteers to carry out coronavirus testing for the government. Lucy has commented that treating the testers as volunteers “feels pretty abusive” and may fall foul of minimum wage legislation, …
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New government guidance on coronavirus and contracts – how to act responsibly and fairly

The Cabinet Office issued new practical guidance on 7th May 2020 on responsible contractual behaviour in the performance and enforcement of contracts impacted by the COVID-19 emergency. The guidance is intended to apply to all current contracts which are materially impacted by COVID-19. Parties are encouraged to be reasonable, proportionate and co-operative to ensure just …
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Bates Wells profiled in the Times Best Law Firms 2021

Bates Wells has been recommended across three areas in this year’s Times report. Bates Wells have been commended for its work in Administrative & public law; Charities and Immigration. The Times Best Law Firms 2021 has recognised Bates Wells as “Best for Charities” in this year’s report. Drawn from surveys among our peers in the …
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Department of Education consults on rationalising post-16 qualifications that compete with T Levels by 2023

According to its recently published consultation paper, the Department of Education (“DfE”) considers that with “more than 12,000 different qualifications funded in England at level 3 and below”. The quality of education and skills provided across the piece do not provide the world class technical education that the DfE is aiming for. The proposal is …
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Merger and real estate

Planning and organisation are important for a successful merger. One aspect of this is to identify, at the outset, any real estate implications that are likely to be involved.
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Victoria Hordern speaks to LexisNexis on data transfers—the aftermath of Schrems II

Victoria Hordern, partner and head of our data privacy team, has recently been interviewed by LexisNexis to consider the impact of the judgment taken by the Court of Justice on 16 July 2020 in the Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland Ltd, Maximillian Schrems (Schrems II) case on European data protection law. This decision by …
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Gift Aid and refunds of advance entry fees

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted charities to consider refunding donations that allow entry to visitor attractions. Gift Aid rules mean that this needs to be handled carefully. Bill Lewis and Susan Shi explain the finer points of entry refunds.
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Coronavirus and recruitment in the UK

Our client was looking to hire a candidate already in the UK on a Tier 2 visa, initially on a part-time basis for a few months and then full-time. As all application centres in the UK are currently closed, leave to remain applications are being put on hold for the moment. We therefore advised our …
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International recruitment queries

During the coronavirus pandemic our team have been assisting clients with issues such as if they have made offers of employment to candidates based outside of the UK. In such cases, the candidates were in the process of submitting their visa applications when the pandemic began to affect in the UK and many countries abroad. …
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Anatomy of a rebrand – from BWB to Bates Wells

In June 2019, we stopped being Bates Wells Braithwaite, or BWB, and became simply ‘Bates Wells’. Catharina Waller gives the lawyer’s inside track on our recent brand refresh.
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Personnel Today: Chetal Patel provides ten top tips on how employers can negotiate the Home Office sponsor licence regime

In a concise summary for Personnel Today of how the government’s sponsor licence regime impacts employers, Chetal Patel set out ten key points leadership teams need to be aware of if they want to stay on the right side of the Home Office’s regulations in this area. Describing the current status of sponsor licences, Chetal …
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IR35 – What does your organisation need to know?

What is IR35? IR35 is a set of rules targeting the tax treatment of individual contractors who provide their services through an intermediary (most commonly a personal service company – “PSC”). PSCs are often owned and controlled by an individual contractor and an organisation (“the End Client”) will then contract with that PSC to obtain …
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