The Labour party has announced its plans to increase the National Minimum Wage to £10 per hour for all workers over the age of 18 by 2020. This would be a significant increase – the current NMW is £7.50 for over 25s and drops to just £5.60 per hour for 18 to 20-year-olds – and would see six million workers receive a pay rise. Many businesses have claimed they would not be able afford the increase in wages; however, it is argued that the existing Minimum Wage is not a living wage – especially for young people. The GMB union has backe... Continue reading

Business Secretary, Greg Clark, has set out how the Government’s package of corporate governance reforms will enhance the transparency of big business to shareholders, employees and the public. In the coming months, the Government will introduce new laws to require: around 900 listed companies to annually publish and justify the pay ratio between CEOs and their average UK worker; all companies of a significant size to publicly explain how their directors take employees’ and shareholders’ interests into account; and all large compani... Continue reading

The Government has published the terms of reference for the independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety that was commissioned following the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy. This Review will urgently assess the effectiveness of current building and fire safety regulations and related compliance and enforcement issues, addressing whether the Government’s large-scale cladding system testing programme identified any potential systemic failures. The Review’s two key priorities are to develop a more robust regulatory system for the f... Continue reading

Britain’s top firms and charities urgently need to do more to protect themselves from online threats, according to new Government research. Undertaken in the wake of recent high profile cyber attacks, the survey of the UK’s biggest 350 companies found more than two-thirds of boards had not received training to deal with a cyber incident (68%) despite more than half saying cyber threats were a top risk to their business (54%). One in ten FTSE 350 companies said they operate without a response plan for a cyber incident (10%) and less than a... Continue reading

The UK Department for Exiting the European Union has issued a paper which discusses how enforcement and dispute resolution procedures may be implemented after the UK leaves the EU. The paper, Enforcement and dispute resolution - a future partnership, is part of a series setting out key issues which form part of the Government’s vision for a new partnership with the EU. Enforcement and dispute resolution is an important issue because, in leaving the European Union, the UK will bring about an end to the direct jurisdiction of the European Cour... Continue reading