Law360: Opaque bonus processes and a tendency for women to specialise in lower-earning practices are hampering progress by law firms as they seek to close the more than 31% bonus pay-gap, experts say.

Operating company which holds key assets and runs the day-to-day business.

What is the background to the Open Banking concept? Despite great technological advances in the retail banking sector over the last few decades, from telephone and online banking, it is arguable that the traditional retail banking business model has remained broadly unchanged. While an increasing number of customers have migrated from branch banking to new channels, retail banking is still a simple model of deposit taking and money lending. The ‘closed’ retail banking system has also consistently retained ownership of customers and, crucially, their data. However, legal and regulatory developments have given rise to the concept of ‘Open Banking’. These developments, which were launched in the UK simultaneously on 13 January 2018, are: • the implementation of the recast European Payment Services Directive (Directive 2015/2366/EU) (PSD2)—PSD2 replaced the original Payment Services Directive. PSD2’s scope is broader than the PSD and covers two types of third-party providers (TTPs), namely payment initiation service providers (PISPs) and account information service providers (AISPs). PSD2 was implemented in the UK by the Payment Services Regulations 2017, SI 2017/752 (PSRs 2017)

The public sector is one of the largest and most significant sources of information in the UK. Promoting the use and re-use of public sector information delivers huge economic benefits as well as stimulating democratic engagement and transparency. The re-use of public sector information is closely aligned to the government's transparency agenda and support for open data. The development of open licensing such as Open Government Licence (OGL) facilitates and encourages re-use. This Practice Note considers the development of open licensing, in particular the UK Government Licensing Framework (UKGLF) and the OGL. Policy context In the UK, there is an increasing emphasis on the vital role that public sector information plays in society, in both the public and private sector, from both an economic and social perspective. The removal of obstacles to re-use through open licences can help deliver the following benefits: • making government more accountable and approachable—replacing bureaucratic accountability with democratic accountability by making the information about the workings of government available to the public and enabling the public to hold government to account

Public Law analysis: Rule 7(1) of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal Rules 2018 requires the Investigatory Powers Tribunal to carry out its functions in such a way as to secure that information is not disclosed to an extent, or in a manner, that is prejudicial to national security or, among other things, the continued discharge of the functions of any of the intelligence services. The role of ‘Neither Confirm Nor Deny’ (NCND) may play a role in achieving this. This application of NCND is case sensitive but the state’s assessment of likely damage caused if departed from will be accepted unless irrational or otherwise vitiated on public law grounds. The IPT is subject to its own rules, not the civil procedural rules but would reflect on observations provided by the High Court on the form and content of witness statements prepared on behalf of public authorities. Written by Simon McKay, barrister England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Ofgem and the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) have written an open letter inviting Gas Distribution Networks (GDN) to prepare proposals to support the development and delivery of a Hydrogen Village Conversion Trial. The letter provides guidance to inform the development of GDN applications expected in December 2021.

Open Rights Group (ORG) has published the findings of a six-month investigation into the Home Office’s use of two generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools in asylum casework. The Asylum Case Summarisation (ACS) tool summarises asylum interview transcripts for decision-makers, while the Asylum Policy Search (APS) tool provides a chat-style interface for searching country policy information. ORG raises concerns about the accuracy, quality assurance and transparency of the tools, including that asylum claimants are not told when AI is used to summarise their case and country information. It calls on the Home Office to suspend use of both tools and implement mitigation measures for affected asylum applicants, as well as commission an independent evaluation and audit of their accuracy in live use.

The Open Trade Coalition has released a renewed joint Business Declaration calling for an open trade policy to boost competition, prosperity, and resilience in Europe. The Business Declaration also proposes various measures to establish a strong EU trade policy, including pursuing new and renewed trade agreements, supporting the World Trade Organization and the international rules-based system to ensure a fair trade environment, and enhancing cooperation with third-country partners, among other recommendations.

Where a network operator grants access to his network to any service provider who may reasonably request it.

The term used to describe the range of funds offered by a unit-linked contract when there exists a very wide range of funds managed by an array of external fund managers as well as the in-house funds of the life company.

This Practice Note explains open banking and relevant legal and commercial issues. It covers: • Background • The open banking standard • Third party providers and authorisation • Applicable law and regulations • Contracting for open banking • Effectiveness of implementation • Key developments Open banking is the name given to the use of application programming interfaces (APIs) to collate data and allow third parties to access (principally) current accounts with participating banks (and related data), with the account holder’s consent. One purpose of this access is to allow such third parties to develop products and services for customers that are informed by the data they obtain and/or their ability, with the customer’s explicit consent, to initiate payments from in-scope accounts. It is hoped that these new products and increased customer awareness will enliven competition in the UK’s retail banking market. Open banking is closely associated (and sometimes confused) with the Payment Services Regulations 2017, SI 2017/752 (PSRs 2017), which implemented the Payment Services Directive (EU) 2015/2366 (PSD2) prior

A contract under which the employer is able to scrutinise the contractor's costs and margins through the reporting of, or access to, information.