ESG and sustainability: employment issues

This Overview provides a summary of the content in the subtopic, ESG and sustainability: employment issues. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, along with sustainability, are broad concepts and in the business context generally include the impact an entity is having on the environment and society. This content aims to help practitioners advising businesses by providing an overview of the many pervasive ESG issues in the employment context and also signposts other relevant materials.

Understanding the terminology

The terminology used in this area is extensive. Terms such as ‘sustainable business’, ‘responsible business’, ‘corporate responsibility’ (CR) or ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR), and ‘environmental, social and governance’ (ESG) are used by business and lawyers in various different contexts, and can mean different things to different audiences. However, for the most part they are all used to convey a business behaving in a responsible manner as part of its day-to-day activities. Many companies are realising that compliance with national, state and local laws and regulations may no longer provide sufficient protection from legal, regulatory or reputational risk, and that it is necessary to view ‘responsible

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Latest Employment News

Right to work guidance updated on Digital Verification Service checks

The Home Office has issued an updated version of its ‘Employer’s guide to right to work checks’ document, with the changes primarily related to simplifying the information on digital checks for employers of British and Irish citizens who have a valid passport (or Irish passport card). The new version has removed various technical details which were previously intended for providers of these digital verification services, and revised the relevant terminology, so that ‘Digital Verification Service (DVS)’ now includes both the terms Identity Service Providers (IDSPs) and Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT). This is stated to align the guidance with the terminology used in the UK digital identity and attributes framework and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. Guidance and requirements specifically for DVS are now set out in a separate, supplementary code for digital right to work checks. The relevant guidance for employers has been revised. Although it is not currently mandatory for employers to use a DVS certified against the ‘trust framework’ and the supplementary code, this position will change ‘in the near future’, and it will become mandatory to use a DVS listed on the register of certified DVS (maintained by the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA)). In other changes, the new version reiterates that an original expired BRP is not proof of a right to work, and instead an online check must be taken. It also confirms that short-term entry clearance vignettes are being phased out, and that increasingly persons recently issued entry clearance will only have their eVisa to rely on for these purposes, so will need to create a UKVI account as soon as possible and can do this from overseas. In relation to asylum seekers with a pending claim, the guidance now states that they can also volunteer whilst their claim is considered without being granted permission to work, but they can only carry out 'paid' work if they have been granted permission to work under the Immigration Rules, Part 11, paras 360 or 360C. Previously the reference in our quotation marks to ‘paid’ work stated ‘voluntary’ work

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