FORTHCOMING CHANGES: When it is commenced, section 9 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) will amend section 80G of the Employment Rights Act 1996 to introduce a substantive reasonableness requirement into a refusal of a request for flexible working, require the employer to explain why refusal is reasonable on the statutory ground(s), and permit regulations specifying consultation steps. Section 9 was commenced on 6 January 2026 but only for regulation-making purposes. The substantive reforms are intended to take effect in Autumn 2027. On 15 September 2026, the government published its response to its flexible-working consultation which ran between 5 February 2026 and 30 April 2026, see: LNB News 05/02/2026 44 and LNB News 16/09/2026 8. Acas launched a consultation, running between 1 October 2026 and 17 December 2026, on a revised statutory Code of Practice on requests for flexible working to reflect the forthcoming ERA 2025 changes, see: LNB News 01/10/2026 49. An employee has the statutory right under section 80F of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 1996) to apply to their employer

The Latin phrase quantum meruit relates to claims to recover reasonable remuneration for services rendered or for goods supplied. Literally translated means 'as much as he deserves'. When calculating the sum of a quantum meruit, the court will have in mind what is fair in consideration of the works undertaken. There are no 'hard and fast' rules, although where a contract is found to be void or unenforceable the court is unlikely to allow the claiming party to rely on any pricing mechanism which it contains.

There are a number of circumstances in which shares in a company may be transferred, the most common of which are upon a sale of the shares or by a gift of the shares. Other circumstances include a transfer of shares upon the granting or enforcement of security or their transmission by operation of law (eg where the death or bankruptcy of a shareholder has occurred). For more information about the transmission of shares, see Q&A: Can personal representatives transfer shares in a company without a grant of probate? It is most common for shares to be transferred upon a sale. A sale of shares will normally take place pursuant to the terms of a share purchase agreement or an option agreement. A company may also buy back its own shares. For further information on share buybacks, see Practice Note: How to carry out a share buyback. This fundamental notes focuses on the transfer of the title to certificated shares upon a sale that is not a share buyback. What are certificated shares and uncertificated shares? Shares

This Practice Note considers the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) under which self-employed individuals and members of partnerships who had been adversely impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could claim a grant from HMRC. The scheme ended on 30 September 2021 when the claims process for the fifth and final grant payment (SEISS 5) closed. This Practice Note sets out the position in relation to SEISS 5 claims that applied immediately prior to the scheme’s closure. The SEISS was announced by the government on 26 March 2020, and the online application service for the first grant payment (SEISS 1) was available from 13 May–13 July 2020. The SEISS was subsequently extended three times: • on 29 May 2020 it was announced that the SEISS would be extended (first SEISS extension) to make provision for a second grant payment (SEISS 2). Applications for SEISS 2 were open from 17 August–19 October 2020 • on 24 September 2020 the government announced a further extension to the SEISS (second SEISS extension). The second SEISS extension provided for two taxable grant

This week’s edition of Restructuring & Insolvency weekly highlights includes a look at the Queen’s Speech and the implications for R&I professionals, the latest on sanctions against Russian entities, the Court of Appeal’s decision in Edengate Homes (Butley Hall) on the assignment of office-holder claims, the latest in our INSOL Europe/Lexis®PSL series of country guides on the implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/1023, plus a round up of other R&I related news.

This edition of Employment weekly highlights includes: (1) a new Employment Rights Bill factsheet on changes to the statutory sick pay structure, (2) the EHRC interim update on the practical implications of For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers Supreme Court decision, and confirmation that an updated EHRC Code of Practice is expected in summer, (3) analysis by Annie Davis of Old Square Chambers of Court of Appeal guidance on Article 14 ECHR challenges to employment legislation, (4) examination by the EAT of the benchmark for costs orders in discrimination claims, (5) an EAT judgment addressing the question of relevance when determining applications for information and disclosure of documents, (6) an EAT decision that acquiescence over businesses getting struck-off can be unreasonable conduct for the purposes of a costs order, (7) our new Practice Note on employers’ obligations to manage workplace temperature, (8) dates for your diary, and (9) other news items of interest to employment practitioners.

This week’s edition of Employment weekly highlights includes: (1) commentary from Tamar Burton, barrister at Cloisters, and Joel Wallace, barrister at Littleton Chambers, both of whom were Counsel in the case, on a Supreme Court judgment confirming that the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia is not entitled to state immunity where an employee’s duties fell within the normal ancillary and supportive role of administrative staff, (2) the 2025 Parker Review report on ethnic diversity in UK businesses, (3) a Court of Appeal judgment providing guidance on the list of issues in employment tribunal claims, (4) the IRLR highlights for April 2025, (5) our new precedents—neonatal care leave policy and trade union recognition agreement, (6) dates for your diary, and (7) other news items of interest to employment practitioners.

This week's edition of Arbitration weekly highlights includes: an analysis of the UK Supreme Court guidance on ICSID enforcement, holding that article 54(1) of the ICSID Convention is a clear waiver of adjudicative state immunity under State Immunity Act 1978, s 2(2), alongside other arbitration-related decisions from England and Wales, the UAE, Brazil, Spain, Singapore and the USA, and further updates from AIAC, CEPANI, DIS and FINRA. All this, and more, in our weekly highlights.

This Practice Note considers exclusion and limitation of liability in business-to-consumer (B2C) contracts and notices. It considers the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA 2015) and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) guidance on unfair terms (CMA37) (first published on 31 July 2015) in the context of exclusion and limitation of liability (CMA Guidance). It also provides guidance for drafting exclusion and limitation of liability clauses (also known as limitation of liability clauses, limitation clauses, exclusion of liability clauses, disclaimers, exclusion clauses and exemption clauses). The CMA published a revised version of the CMA Guidance on 22 July 2026, following a consultation. The revised CMA Guidance does not materially alter the interpretation of the law but instead reflects post-2015 case law and new enforcement architecture introduced by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA 2024). The statutory tests as to fairness and transparency remain but the guidance has been re-framed to provide more granular analysis of high-risk terms, as well as providing thematic examples. In this Practice Note, exclusion and limitation of liability provisions

This playbook provides guidance for drafting and negotiating a settlement agreement that is being used to settle potential statutory and contractual employment claims on a redundancy, before the employment terminates. This playbook includes a preferred position and a fallback position for the most commonly-negotiated clauses. It may not, however, address every issue that may arise in the negotiation of a particular settlement agreement. This playbook template can be used by lawyers acting for the employer or in-house lawyers. Users should modify the playbook as necessary to address client-specific issues and ensure the client’s interests are fully protected. The level of risk noted in the playbook may vary depending on the client. Note that this playbook does not include provisions for use where the settlement agreement is being entered into after the employee’s employment has already terminated. For a full list of related settlement agreement content, see: Settlement (employment)—overview. For a template agreement, see Precedent: Settlement agreement (employment). For a template short-form agreement, see Precedent: Settlement agreement (employment) (short form). For a template agreement for use:

This Practice Note provides guidance for a party involved in a commercial transaction between businesses to help them determine whether they are an independent controller, joint controller or processor under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (EU GDPR). For a general introduction to the EU GDPR, see Practice Note: The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR). In brief Data protection law in the EEA (the EU plus Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein) is intended to ensure information about living individuals (within the definition of ‘personal data’) is used fairly and responsibly. To help ensure that, the EEA data protection laws impose a large number of obligations on those ‘processing’ personal data (and on those who control such processing) and grant rights to those whose personal data is processed (the ‘data subjects’). In summary, ‘processing’ includes doing almost anything with personal data, including storing, sharing, deleting or using it. It is vital that natural persons and organisations involved

Welcome to this week’s edition of the In-house weekly highlights, a curated summary of news analysis and new content from across the legal landscape. These highlights focus on key risk & compliance, commercial, corporate, information law and employment developments that will be relevant to most in-house lawyers.