For some time now it has been recognised that direct discrimination occurs not only if someone is treated less favourably because of their own protected characteristics, but also if they are treated less favourably because of somebody else’s p...

UK Pensions Speedbrief: Age discrimination challenge to judicial pension scheme succeedsThe Employment Tribunal has handed down its

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that the transitional arrangements in the New Judges Pension Scheme (NJPS) constitute unlawful age discrimination.  In a related case, the EAT has also held that the Employment Tribunal (ET) f...

Précis On the 4th July 2013 Eversheds reported on the Opinion of Advocate General Niilo Jääskinen (the “AG”) in the Case C-170/12 Pinckney. (Click here to view this article). Following ...

Précis An owner of a website may redirect users, via clickable links, to copyright protected works, without requiring the permission of the copyright holders if those works have been made available on a freely accessible basis on another web...

Précis: Threats to internet security are constantly in the news, but organisations of all sizes will know that there is a real cost to be borne when systems are hacked.  However, who should bear the cost? In the recent case of Frontier S...

The recent decision in FilmFlex Movies Limited v Piksel Limited [2015] EWHC 426 (Ch) highlights the risks of losing control of IPR in joint software development agreements.  Companies entering into such agreements should be clear about the natu...

Background Innovation is key in our actual economic climate. However, innovation needs economic stimulation. One of the typical measures implemented by national legislators are tax incentives, such as the so-called ‘Patent box’, ‘I...

Cost–sharing for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is a subject close to the minds and pockets of all LGPS funds, employers and members. Consultation by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on cost–sharing ...

A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision (The Mayor and Burgess of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets v Mr J Wooster) has found a local authority liable for unfair dismissal and age discrimination where it made insufficient effort to redeploy a...

Pension Managers Conference, Torquay, 24-25 November 2009 Further to several requests for details of the cases referred to in Gary Delderfield’s talk at the Conference, this special LGPS Speedbrief contains links to all the cases mentioned in ...

In ArjoWiggins Ltd v Ralph (in which Eversheds LLP acted for the successful appellant) the High Court has considered the extent to which the time periods within which complaints may be brought are applicable to the Pensions Ombudsman. This is a help...

The Government has announced that it will be scrapping local government’s ‘Two Tier Code’. In a speech to the CBI last night, Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced that the Code would be wi...

At the end of last year, we reported that the Government announced that headline agreements had been reached with the main trade unions in relation to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), the NHS Pension Scheme (NHSPS), the...

The Welsh Ministers have recently issued The Welsh Authorities Staff Transfers (Pensions) Direction 2012, under powers contained in Section 101 of the Local Government Act 2003 (the “2012 Direction”).  The 2012 Direction came into f...

? Fair Deal: the latest developments On 19 November 2012 HM Treasury published its response to the March 2011 consultation on the future of the Fair Deal for Staff Pensions guidance. The Fair D...

? ? ? ?First detail published on employer cost cap and actuarial valuati...

SummaryThe Deputy Pensions Ombudsman has rejected a complaint by an academy against the administering authority of its Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) fund about the funding methodology used to allocate assets to the Academy when it was initi...

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has recently launched a consultation on what it has described as “technical” changes to regulations governing the ...

The UK’s PF2 model has had a tough upbringing; launched in the wake of a constricted pipeline of PFI projects, the Government knew it faced a tough task – trying to appeal to diverse funding sources whilst increasing transparency and public value. T...

Supplier Speed Brief New Model Contract Precedent for Government ICT and Business Process Outsourcing Contracts Background The Crown Commercial Service and the Government Legal Service have developed what they term “a substantially revised set...

On 21 December 2017, the French Competition Authority (the “FCA”) published a decision imposing a fine of 30 million euros on Brenntag SA and Brenntag AG (together “Brenntag”) for obstructing longstanding investigations (the ...

The court in Innovate Logistics Ltd (in administration) v Sunberry Properties Ltd had to balance a landlord's wish to eject an unauthorised occupier against administrators' rights to deal with the company's assets during the administration. The ten...

In an important decision for landlords, Scottish & Newcastle plc v Raguz, the House of Lords has restored common sense and commercial reality to the procedures that a landlord has to follow before it can recover arrears of rent from a former t...

In our previous e-briefing, we discussed the advent, from 1 December 2008, of rules on abnormal rent increases. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has acknowledged that the current rules do not work fairly and, in some cases, do not work at all. It is...

The University of Reading will be reporting to the Government on the success of the code for leasing business premises. The Code for Leasing Business Premises in England and Wales 2007 (‘the Code’) was published on 28 March 20...

This VAT and Duties Tribunal decision, Riverside Sports & Leisure Limited, concerned the grant of a lease over sports facilities. It illustrates the point that value added tax (VAT) can be problematical in the most innocuous of transactions. In...

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has published an information sheet giving guidance to house builders on the VAT implications of letting unsold houses. The guidance has been published in response to enquiries from house builders who are letting hous...

A Scottish court has ruled that a landlord's right of inspection in a lease permitted the landlord to sink boreholes to search for contamination. In this case, Possfund Custodian Trustee Ltd v Kwik-Fit Properties Ltd, Kwik-Fit was a tenant of a bui...

A building that was built 150 years ago as a house, but that has been used predominantly as offices for the past 60 years, is not a 'house' for the purpose of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967. The Court of Appeal in Grosvenor Estates Ltd v Prospect Es...

A landlord who allowed a member of his family to occupy the demised premises after the tenants' departure was held to have accepted a surrender by operation of law of the premises. Tenants took a three-year lease of a very large residential propert...

Two recent cases involving easements highlight the risks of leaving part of the arrangement undocumented. Two recent cases raised the doctrine of derogation from grant in relation to the grant of an easement - one successfully and the other not. A ...

Land deals are currently one of the most scrutinized areas of public procurement, and the correct application of the public procurement rules to land transactions still poses one of the greatest challenges for public bodies. ...

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Eversheds Sutherland property column: September 2018 Originally published in Practical law In these uncertain times, if cash is king, income is emperor. As a consequence, investors are looking for long-term, lower risk investments in the real estate...

Economic and political uncertainty since the Brexit vote and fear of a predicted debt crisis have increased funding pressures on Higher Education Institutions when putting their estates strategies into action.  A perfect storm of a predicted dr...

Eversheds Sutherland property column: March 2019 Over the last half decade, institutions and investors have become increasingly attracted by the dependable longterm income offered by large-scale professional residential letting. The way investors ac...

Yesterday the Government announced its response to the Law Commission’s report on Event Fees. “Event Fees” are common in the retirement living sector. They are  fees payable on certain events such as sale, subletting or change...

In 2015, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimated that foreign direct investment for the construction of greenfield projects in developing economies had jumped from US$22 billion in 2013, to US$42 billion in 2014 wit...

The United States Supreme Court has made it more difficult for plaintiffs to sue foreign states in US courts under the exception to sovereign immunity applicable to “any case . . . in which rights in property taken in violation of international law ...

The compatibility of investment protection treaties with the regulatory framework of European Union law has been a controversial issue for quite some time. A recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Achmea (formerly Eureko) v...

Russian President Vladimir Putin marked Victory Day, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, in a ceremony shorn of its usual military parade and pomp by the coronavirus pandemic.