The primary objective when entering into a settlement agreement is to ensure a binding and valid settlement of an employee's statutory employment claims. For information on the conditions regulating settlement agreements, see Practice Note: Settlement agreements in employment—legal requirements. Sexual harassment For information on sexual harassment claims under the Equality Act 2010, see the section of Practice Note: Harassment entitled: Conduct of a sexual nature and Rejection of, or submission to, harassing behaviour. As set out in that Practice Note, harassment may also give rise to civil claims under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and criminal offences. Non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality provisions It is not one of the conditions regulating settlement agreements that a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or confidentiality provision be included in a settlement agreement, and consideration should be given to whether such a provision is necessary. Guidance on the use

Post-employment notice pay (PENP) calculation The first step when considering the taxation of termination payments, including payments in lieu of notice (PILON), is to ascertain the ‘post-employment notice pay’ (PENP). The PENP calculation in essence provides a theoretical threshold against which the actual termination award should be measured in order to establish any tax liability. An employer is therefore required to carry out a PENP calculation whenever it makes a ‘relevant termination award’, being a termination award that is not a redundancy payment (or an ‘approved contractual payment’ to the extent exempt under section 309 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (ITEPA 2003)—such approved contractual payments are quite rare in practice). Having carried out the calculation: • if the PENP is less than the entire termination award, only the amount of the termination award equal to the PENP is treated as earnings, with the balance subject to

Liability for employer’s National Insurance Contributions (NICs) (ie secondary Class 1, Class 1A and Class 1B NICs) is the employer’s liability. There is a general prohibition upon any person liable

Unless an exemption or relief applies, an instrument transferring shares (ie a stock transfer form) is chargeable to UK stamp duty at a rate of 0.5%* of the value or amount of the consideration given for the transfer (Schedule 13, Part I to the Finance Act 1999 (FA 1999), paras 1–3). (*A higher rate of 1.5% applies if the shares are being transferred to a depositary or a clearance service operator.) The amount of stamp duty must be rounded up to the nearest multiple of £5 (FA 1999, s 112; STSM013010, STSM013040). The consideration must be ascertainable (ie capable of being calculated) when the stock transfer form is executed (STSM021030). The meaning of 'ascertainable' is also extended by the contingency principle to include amounts that are variable or only payable if a

Warranties in a share purchase agreement (SPA) or asset purchase agreement (APA) are given at the date that the SPA or APA is finalised and executed. Therefore, in a share purchase or asset purchase transaction involving a gap between exchange and completion, risk of breach of warranty passes to the buyer at exchange (although the buyer does not take operational control of the target until completion). The buyer will therefore wish to protect itself in respect of any matters coming to light during this time which could constitute a breach of warranty. If the warranties are only given on exchange and an event or circumstance occurs after exchange but before completion that would otherwise constitute a breach of warranty, the buyer will have no remedy against the seller for any breach of warranty arising after exchange. Therefore, if there is split exchange and completion, the buyer will

The identity of a person appointed as a deputy for a person who has lost mental capacity is in the discretion of the Court of Protection. In Re AS, Senior Judge Lush referred to an order of preference when it came to the appointment of a deputy. He did then go on to say that no one had an entitlement to such an appointment. The order of preference was as follows: • P’s spouse or partner • any other relative who takes a personal interest in P’s affairs • a close friend • a professional adviser such as a family solicitor or accountant • a local authority’s Social Services Department, and • a panel deputy, as deputy

Precisely, when the obligation to pay a debt arises will be determined by the terms of the agreement. Close attention should be paid to the provisions governing payment in order to ascertain when payment falls due. An obligation to pay a sum due under a contract is discharged when payment is made in accordance with the terms of the agreement. For guidance on interpreting contracts, see: Contract interpretation—overview. Matters which may be specifically addressed in the contract include: • the time for payment, which could be a specific date or a period of time referable to an agreed starting date • the place for payment—a specific bank or even bank account might

In summary, there is an initial query arising from the above scenario as to whether the information being shared is personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (the GDPR) regime. If so, then the customer will have a series of additional obligations which it will be required to comply with during the procurement. While these data protection responsibilities will not change or influence any of the obligations on the customer under employment legislation, they will need to be considered alongside the customer’s commercial requirements when establishing

We have assumed that the deposit is held by the stakeholder as escrow agent. When an insolvency office-holder is appointed they take control of the company's assets, usually with a view to realising them in order to make a distribution to creditors. The terms of

Where the ineligible executor is one of several appointed executors a grant will be made to the others with power reserved to the

This Q&A has assumed that there is no pending registration of the transfer at HM Land Registry, which would complete the assignment in law. There is no express definition of 'tenant' in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954) ('landlord' is, however, defined in LTA 1954, s 44). Hence, it is likely that the definition

One of the requirements for an adult's naturalisation as a British citizen under section 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981 (BNA 1981) is to have ‘not at any time in the period of 12 months so, ending [been] subject under the immigration laws to any restriction on the period for which they might remain in the United Kingdom’. There are two ways of satisfying this requirement which may be relevant to European Economic Area (EEA) nationals: • through indefinite leave to remain (including ‘settled status’ granted under Appendix EU) that has been granted more than 12 months ago,