Introduced in 2008, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (CMCHA) is designed to set out what happens when ‘corporate manslaughter’ is committed. This crime is committed if the death of a human being is due to serious management failures, and places the entity as accountable for the death rather than any particular individual. Continue reading
Durand Academy Trust could be stripped of funding over governance concerns
An academy trust could lose its funding from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) after concerns over its governance were raised.
The Durand Academy Trust (DAT) has been issued with a pre-termination warning by the EFA, which has also expressed concerns over the trust’s use of public money. Continue reading
Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act is now law
The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 originates from a 2014 draft bill called the Protection of Charities Bill, which was created with the purpose of giving the Charity Commission greater powers for tackling those culpable of abuse in charities.
This Act received Royal Assent on 16th March 2016, and changed the law relating to charities in a number of ways. Only two of the Act’s provisions came into force at the time of its receiving Royal Assent, and its other measures are set to be phased in over the remainder of this year and into 2017. Continue reading
Recent flurry of cases demonstrates the worth of the Bribery Act 2010
There was never any doubt of the importance that the Bribery Act 2010 was meant to hold for UK corporate governance. The new law was intended to beef up existing anti-bribery initiatives to further mitigate the risk of bribery in the UK as well as overseas, in the process, helping to ensure the continued integrity of British business. Continue reading
Government publishes findings into cutting bureaucracy in adult social care
The adult social care sector is just one within the United Kingdom that has recently come under the scrutiny of the Government’s Cutting Red Tape Review, which aims to work with business to examine ways for simplifying or improving legislation and its implementation to assist in compliance and minimise unnecessary business burdens. Continue reading
How much detail should board papers really contain?
One subject that can be depended on to crop up time and time again in boardrooms is the quality of board papers, and in particular, the level of detail contained within them. Much frustration often prevails in boardrooms over the matter of whether certain board papers are too detailed or not detailed enough. Nor can there be any question about the importance of this subject, given that the amount of detail in such papers can set the tone and direction of discussions. Continue reading
UK listed companies now required to provide viability statement
Such is the ever-growing emphasis on risk management that a requirement has now been introduced under the FCA Listing Rules for all UK listed companies to include a viability statement in their annual report.
The new provision will be added to the UK Corporate Governance Code, and calls for directors to explain in the annual report how they have assessed their company’s prospects, taking into the company’s current position and principal risks. The provision C.2.2 also requires directors to outline the period for which they have carried out their assessment and why they consider that period to be appropriate. Continue reading
Setting the agenda for board meetings – what to do and what not to do
Of all of the aspects of your organisation’s board meetings that we can assist with as part of our meeting management service, one of the most important is the preparation and agreement of the agenda. Continue reading
The corporate governance failures that can destroy value within companies
The perils to a company of not having a comprehensive corporate governance audit should become clear when one takes a closer look at the organisations to have been guilty of some of the most egregious ethics and compliance failures of recent years. VW, FIFA, Petrobas, Toshiba and Deutsche Bank were all named by Compliance Week in its list of the top five such failures last year, and with good reason. Continue reading
Two recent cases broaden what may constitute ‘public interest’ whistleblowing
Those looking to incorporate a limited company this year may wish to take note of two important cases that have broadened what may be considered in the public interest when determining whether a whistleblowing disclosure is protected.
It was back in June 2013 when the government made the legal protection provided to whistleblowers conditional on the worker holding a reasonable belief that their disclosure was in the public interest. Although this was not defined, the intention of the law was to ensure employees couldn’t depend on allegations about breaches of their own employment contracts being given the status of protected whistleblowing procedures. Continue reading