Employment analysis: A statutory European Works Council exceptional information and consultation meeting may be conducted virtually (eg by telephone/video/web conference call) but cannot simply consist of information-giving by the employer as it is part of a staged process in which consultation takes place following provision of at least some substantive information, according to the Central Arbitration Committee.

The Statutory Inquiries Committee has published a call for evidence into the law and practice of how inquiries under the Inquiries Act 2005 (IA 2005) work. The Committee is looking for evidence regarding how the IA 2005 can be improved, the efficacy of statutory inquiries, the challenges and risks facing statutory inquiries and if other methods may work better. The deadline is on Friday 22 March 2024.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has said that a new edition of Statutory Instrument Practice (SIP) is in progress. SIP is the official guide produced by the National Archives to help departments prepare, make, lay and publish statutory instruments and to explain the related parliamentary procedures. The current latest edition fifth edition is dated November 2017. In a letter to the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (JCSI), DCMS minister Baroness Twycross said officials are working towards a more ‘componentised’ version of SIP that will be easier to maintain and manage.

FTSE 350 companies are required to comply with The Statutory Audit Services for Large Companies Market Investigation (Mandatory Use of Competitive Tender Processes and Audit Committee Responsibilities) Order 2014 (Statutory Audit Services Order). The Statutory Audit Services Order applies to a company from its entry into either the FTSE 100 or FTSE 250 index and until such time as it exits both indices. The Statutory Audit Services Order made it mandatory for FTSE 350 companies to put their statutory audit engagement out to tender at least every 10 years (in contrast to the 'comply or explain' provision in the UKCG Code). However, if, after going through the competitive tender process, the audit committee finds that the company’s existing auditor remains the best placed auditor for the company, there is no restriction in the Order that would prevent that same auditor being appointed for a further term.

What is a statutory Will? Where a person is incapable of making a valid Will for themselves, the Court of Protection has the power under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA 2005) to direct that a Will should be executed on their behalf. Such Wills are often referred to as statutory Wills, although this phrase is not used in MCA 2005. A statutory Will may make any provision which could be made in a Will executed by P if they had capacity to execute it themselves. The Court of Protection can only order the execution of a statutory Will on behalf of a person who is aged 18 or over and who lacks testamentary capacity. For guidance on testamentary capacity, see Practice Note: Capacity to make or revoke a Will. Only the court has the power to execute a Will on behalf of P. So, for example, a person cannot delegate the power to make their Will to their attorney, nor can a deputy decide the provisions of a Will or execute it on behalf of

Construction analysis: The issue in this case was whether an adjudication decision that was revised and re-issued by the adjudicator unenforceable because the adjudicator had not actually corrected that decision to remove a clerical error or typographical error. Put another way, the court had to decide whether the adjudicator had operated Paragraph 22A(1) of the Scheme for Construction Contracts 1998 or whether the Adjudicator had simply acted outside of his jurisdiction.. Written by Hamish Lal, partner at Hamish Lal Partners.

This Practice Note describes the: • creation of new highways that are, when properly constructed, intended to become maintainable at the public expense • adoption by a highway authority of an existing highway, whereby it becomes a highway maintainable at the public expense The legal creation of a new highway is described in Practice Note: Creation of highways without express agreement. The duty to maintain a highway is an entirely separate matter. Generally, a landowner might be happy to dedicate a road as a highway, but will want the local authority to pay for its future maintenance. Otherwise, the duty to maintain the highway will fall on the landowner. There are three ways in which a way becomes a highway maintainable at the public expense: • by a process initiated by the landowner • by a process initiated by the highway authority • by mutual agreement A process initiated by the landowner There are many roads, particularly in the older boroughs of our

This Practice Note considers statutory adoption pay (SAP) and contractual adoption payments. It also looks at eligibility requirements, the definition of employed earner, the period of entitlement, notification (ie notice) requirements, what evidence must be produced, how long SAP will be paid, payment rates, who is liable, including where there is more than one employer, what happens if the child dies or the placement is disrupted, when SAP is not payable, record-keeping and the recoupment provisions. Finally, it consider the interaction between contractual sick pay and SAP and adoptions from outside the UK, and contracting out. A parent who takes adoption leave (see Practice Note: Adoption leave) may also be entitled to SAP during some of that leave. They may also be entitled to pay during time off to attend adoption appointments (see Practice Note: Time off work for adoption appointments). The adopter of a child who is placed for adoption and a second person (who must be married to, or the civil partner of, or the partner of, that adopter) may also be entitled to share (if

This Practice Note details the varying definitions of cohabitation, whether by same or different-sex couples, contained within statute. Calls for reform of the law in relation to cohabitation are also considered. There are various definitions of cohabitation within legislation. The government is consulting on proposed reforms addressing the financial consequences of cohabitation breakdown alongside potential major reform to financial remedies law. See News Analysis: Government consults on major reform of financial remedies and cohabitation law. See Practice Note: Case law definitions of cohabitation. Statutory definitions Examples of statutory definitions of cohabitation include: • the meaning of 'cohabitants' as defined in section 62(1)(a) of the Family Law Act 1996 as 'two persons who are neither married to each other nor civil partners of each other but are living together as if they were a married couple or civil partners' • references to whether a couple are living in the same

Local Government analysis: Prohibited teachers have a statutory right of appeal but, unlike appeals brought by other regulated professionals, the appeals are not covered by Practice Direction 52D (ie the direction requiring a rehearing). The CPR provide that, absent a practice direction, appeals shall be limited to a review unless the interests of justice require a rehearing. In appeal brought by teachers, The High Court had previously conducted rehearings, without objection by the Secretary of State; or reviews, without objection by the appellant teacher. In this case, for the first time, the parties took opposing views and the judge reviewed the history of this peculiar appellant jurisdiction and, applying principles enunciated by the Court of Appeal in of Sastry and Okpara v General Medical Council, found that, given the grave nature of the issues at stake, a rehearing was in the interests of justice. For those representing teachers on appeal, it shows a route to securing rehearing rather than a review. Written by Andrew Faux, head of Legal Practice at the Reflective Practice.

For the UK definition of statutory audit see CA 2006, s 1210. Statutory audit is defined in article 2 of the Statutory Audit Directive 2006/43/EC (as amended by the Statutory Audit Amending Directive 2014/56/EU) as an audit of annual financial statements or consolidated financial statements in so far as (a) required by Union law; (b) required by national law as regards small undertakings; (c) voluntarily carried out at the request of small undertakings which meets national legal requirements that are equivalent to those for an audit under point (b), where national legislation defines such audits as statutory audits.

A statutory auditor is a person approved to carry out the audit of annual accounts or consolidated accounts.