Standard deed formalities A deed is a specific form of written instrument required for certain transactions. See Practice Note: Deeds. Deeds must be executed in accordance with statutory and common law formalities that go beyond a simple signature in order for the document to be valid and enforceable. See Practice Note: Executing documents—deeds and simple contracts. There are four key requirements for a valid deed (comprising both statutory (eg Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989 (LP(MP)A 1989)) and common law principles): • it must be in writing • it must be clear from the face of the instrument that it is a deed and is intended to be a deed • it must be executed as a deed • it must be delivered (this does not mean physical delivery but a deed is delivered when a party makes clear its intention to be bound) The form of execution for a deed varies depending on the type of

An eligible person, whether that is the mother, or the father or partner of a child, must take shared parental leave (SPL) in complete weeks, but leave may be taken as one continuous period or in discontinuous periods. For further information, see the section of Practice Note: Shared parental leave (birth) entitled When and how leave may be taken. An employee’s right to return after SPL depends on the amount of relevant statutory leave they have taken (as defined in Shared Parental Leave Regulations 2014 (SPL Regs 2014), SI 2014/3050, reg 40(3)). Where an employee returns to work after a period of SPL, and the sum total of all periods of relevant statutory leave taken by them in relation to the relevant child is 26 weeks or less, the employee will be

For general information on holiday and holiday pay, see Practice Notes: • Holiday • Holiday pay As 'workers' under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR 1998), SI 1998/1833, zero hours employees and workers have the right to 5.6 weeks' paid statutory holiday per leave year (WTR 1998, SI 1998/1833, regs 13, 13A and 16. There are no special provisions dealing with the statutory holiday entitlement of a worker with a casual work or zero hours contract, ie a contract where the employer is not obliged to provide the individual with any work. Zero hours employees and workers are treated as part-time workers, and so will usually be entitled to a pro-rated amount of holiday. However, because zero hours workers work irregular hours, and the legislation deals with entitlement in terms of weeks, it can be difficult to calculate their holiday entitlement and to calculate

For information on the decision in Brazel v Harpur Trust generally, see the section of Practice Note: Holiday pay entitled Term-time and seasonal workers. A payment by way of pension is specifically excluded from the statutory definition of wages under section 27(2)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996). Employer’s pension contributions do not fall within the definition of wages, not because of ERA 1996, s 27(2)(c), but because (under ERA 1996, s 27(1)(a)) wages means any sums ‘payable

Broadly, the effect of the off-payroll IR35 regime is, in relevant situations, to shift the responsibility for assessing whether IR35 applies to an engagement from the personal service company (PSC) to the end client and, in the event IR35 does apply, to shift the obligation to make deductions in respect of income tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) onto the party that is closest in the relevant contractual chain to the PSC (whether that party is the end client which contracts directly with the PSC or another intervening intermediary in more complicated contractual arrangements). This shift creates a significant extra compliance burden and, where the end client is required to operate Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and account for employers’ NICs, can also create an additional cost for clients using workers’ services which are provided through the worker’s PSC. For information on the off-payroll IR35 regime generally, see Practice Notes: • IR35—the large and public client off-payroll regime • IR35—the

The provisions governing working time (the Working Time Regulations 1998, SI 1998/1833) and national minimum wage entitlement (the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015, SI 2015/621) are entirely different, and should be considered separately. For information on working time, see Practice Note: Hours of work and working time. In relation to the national minimum wage, determining whether or not a worker is being paid the minimum wage involves, in essence, working out an hourly rate of pay by dividing payments received by hours worked in a pay reference period. There is no right to be paid the minimum wage for each hour worked, only to be paid at or above the minimum wage on average for time worked over a pay reference period. A pay reference period is a week, month or other period,

Up to 5 April 2019, an employee was entitled to be given a written itemised pay statement by their employer, at or before the time any wages were paid to them, containing particulars of: • the gross amount of wages • the amounts of any variable and any relevant fixed deductions (and the purpose for which any deductions had been made) • the net amount of wages • where different parts of the net amount were paid in different ways, the amount and method of payment of each part With

For further information, generally, about the national minimum wage (NMW), see Practice Note: National minimum wage. Most ‘workers’ who work in the UK are entitled to be paid the minimum wage (see Practice Note: National minimum wage, in particular the main section dealing with Eligibility). Determining whether or not a worker is being paid the minimum wage involves, in essence, working out an hourly rate of pay by dividing payments received by hours worked in a pay reference period. There is no right to be paid the minimum wage for each hour worked, only to be paid at or above the minimum wage on average for time worked over a pay reference period. A pay reference period is a week, month or other period, depending on the

If a worker turns 21 at the start of a pay reference period (for example, paid weekly on Sunday and turns 21 on Monday), would they be eligible for the NLW in that pay reference period or would it be the next one? For information on the national minimum wage generally, see Practice Note: National minimum wage and Minimum wage compliance checklist. Under section 1 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (NMWA 1998), a person who qualifies for the national minimum wage shall be remunerated by their employer in respect of their work in any pay reference period at a rate which is not less than the national

There is no single definition of cryptoasset or cryptocurrency. HMRC defines cryptoassets as ‘cryptographically secured digital representations of value or contractual rights that can be transferred, stored or traded electronically’ (see HMRC Cryptoassets Manual, CRYPTO10100—What Are Cryptoassets). HMRC guidance refers to the following types of cryptoasset: • exchange tokens—which are intended for use as a method of payment. Bitcoin is an example of an exchange token • utility tokens—which provide the holder with access to particular goods or services • security tokens—which have rights similar to shares or debt • stablecoins—which are intended to minimise volatility by being pegged to something that is considered to have a stable value such as US dollars or gold Cryptoassets received by way of earnings paid by an employer to an employee constitute money’s worth and are subject

One of the temporary changes introduced by the government in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is that those who are required to self-isolate are potentially deemed incapable of working and therefore entitled to statutory sick pay (SSP). However, the answer to the question whether a worker is entitled to receive SSP if they self-isolate in response to an alert from the NHS COVID-19 app remains unclear, as explained below. According to the Public Health England (PHE): guidance for contacts of people with confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) infection who do not live with the person, contacts who need to self-isolate will usually be notified and advised to do so by the NHS Test and Trace, including

UPDATE: This Q&A was first published before the HMRC published its guidance for employers: Claim for your employees’ wages through the coronavirus job retention scheme and guidance for employees: Check if your employer can use the coronavirus job retention scheme on 26 March 2020. These two sets of guidance were updated on 4 April, 9 April and 15 April 2020. The government also published a Treasury Direction on 15 April. For information on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), see Practice Note: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (original version to 30 June 2020) [Archived]. For information