Category: Legal News

UK Government Blocks Scotland’s Gender Recognition Bill

UK Government Blocks Scotland's Gender Recognition Bill

The UK Government has blocked progress of Scotland’s controversial Gender Recognition Bill. The GRA was designed to make it easier for people in Scotland to change their legal gender. Under the current rules, trans people must meet certain requirements to change their gender legally, including being at least 18 years old, obtaining a medical diagnosis […]

Former UK Twitter Employees Threaten Legal Action for Unfair Dismissal

Former Twitter Employees Threaten Legal Action for Unfair Dismissal

Dozens of former Twitter employees in the UK are preparing to bring legal action against the tech giant for unfair dismissal. A letter seen by the Financial Times was sent to Twitter on 10 January by law firm Winckworth Sherwood on behalf of 43 former Twitter employees, claiming “unlawful, unfair and completely unacceptable treatment” to […]

New UK Laws For 2023

New UK Laws For 2023

What new laws are set to be introduced in the UK in 2023? We summarise the key legislative changes for the year ahead. Removal of EU law When the UK left the EU in 2020 all the EU laws were effectively changed into British law to allow for as smooth a transition as possible. The […]

24/7 Support Line For Rape Victims Launched

24/7 Support Line For Rape Victims Launched

Rape victims in England and Wales now have access to 24/7 help, with the launch of a new 24/7 Support Line from 7 December 2022. Specialist operators will be accessible 24/7 through telephone or webchat to give victims critical information and emotional support, including referrals for longer-term, local resources such as Independent Sexual Violence Advisors […]

Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill Set For 2023

Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill Set For 2023

The UK government is expected to publish the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill imminently. The new law is set to overhaul UK competition and consumer protection laws. The Bill implements the government’s digital markets strategy, introducing reforms to consumer protection and competition law, while giving the Digital Markets Unit (DMU) new powers to enforce a […]

UK-Switzerland Services Mobility Agreement Extended to 2025

UK-Switzerland Services Mobility Agreement Extended to 2025

Switzerland and the UK have extended the Services Mobility Agreement for a further 3 years, until 31 December 2025. The UK-Switzerland Services Mobility Agreement is a post-Brexit arrangement between the UK and Switzerland that has been in place since 2021. It allows UK service industry professionals to travel and operate freely in Switzerland for up […]

CMA Takes Action Against Barclays for Breaching PPI Order

CMA takes action against Barclays for breaching the PPI Order

The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) has written publicly to Barclays outlining details of the company’s breach of the Payment Protection Insurance Market Investigation Order 2011 for failing to remind customers about payment protection insurance (PPI) agreements. The total remediation package, consisting of refunds and goodwill payments, may total up to £1 million. PPI providers are […]

Carers Given One Week Unpaid Leave Under New Law

Carers given one week unpaid leave under new law

Unpaid caregivers are to be entitled to one week of unpaid leave per year under new legislation. The Carer’s Leave Bill, which was approved in its second reading on 21 October, is set to give employees with care responsibilities the right to take one week of unpaid time off work each year to provide for, […]

Government takes first legal action on building safety against freeholder

Government takes first legal action on building safety against freeholder

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is bringing legal action against a freeholder for neglecting to address building safety flaws. The freeholder of Stevenage’s fifteen-story Vista Tower, Grey GR Limited Partnership, a company owned by RailPen, has been given 21 days to fix the tower’s fire safety issues, or a court application will […]

ICO Publishes Revised Draft Journalism Code

ICO Publishes Revised Journalism Code

A revised draft of the UK’s Journalism Code has been published by the Information Commissioner (ICO) and is now open for public consultation. The UK’s data protection regulator is revising guidelines to make clear journalists’ obligations under UK data protection law. The draft code sets out recommendations and expectations of those engaged in ‘journalism’ using […]

TikTok Facing £27m Fine From UK Data Commissioner

TikTok Facing £27m Fine From UK Data Commissioner

TikTok is facing a £27 million fine after the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) provisionally determined that it violated child data protection regulations over a two-year period. The ICO said that social media giant “may have” processed data of children under the age of 13 without parental consent between May 2018 and July 2020. Additionally, […]

Chancellor Announces Permanent Stamp Duty Cut

Chancellor Announces Permanent Stamp Duty Cut

Stamp duty is to be reduced with immediate effect, as announced by the Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, in today’s ‘fiscal event’. The threshold above which property buyers now have to pay in stamp duty has increased from £125,000 to £250,000. A typical family moving into a semi-detached home will save £2,500 in stamp duty, according to […]

New Legislation Put Forward to Amend, Repeal & Replace EU Law More Easily

New legislation to repeal, replace & amend EU law more easily

The UK Government has put forward the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill to remove the ‘special features’ of EU law that remain in the UK legal system. The Bill amends the 2018 European Union (Withdrawal) Act to make it easier for UK legislators to amend, repeal or replace retained EU law (REUL). Since […]

Legal challenge launched against government’s new ‘strike-breaking’ laws

Title: HMRC starter checklist; employers' guide Key phrase: HMRC starter checklist Synonym: P46 Audience: Employers Word count: 2200 minimum The following guide for employers looks at what you should do in the context of registering a new-starter for PAYE and setting them up with the correct tax code, including using the HMRC starter checklist where the employee does not have a recent P45. We explain the different steps that you must follow, as the employer, when taking on a new recruit in the context of your obligations to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), including: checking that you need to pay your new-starter through PAYE getting information to work out your new-starter’s tax code finding out if your new-starter needs to repay a student loan, and registering your new-starter with HMRC. If you are employing staff for the very first time, you will need to register as an employer with HMRC before anything else. You can do this 4 weeks before you pay your new staff.   Do you need to pay your new-starter through PAYE? You will need to pay a new-starter though Pay As You Earn (PAYE) if they will be earning £123 or more a week, £533 a month or £6,396 a year. However, you do not need to pay self-employed workers through PAYE, including freelancers or independent contractors. As a general rule, someone will be classed as ‘self-employed’ if they run their own business and are responsible for both its success or failure, and as ‘employed' if they work for you and do not take on any of the risks associated with running a business. When taking on someone new, you must always first ascertain their employment status to make sure that they are not self-employed. If you get this wrong, there may be pay extra Income Tax and National Insurance to pay, as well as interest and a possible penalty. When it comes to agency workers, you do not need to operate PAYE if a worker is paid by the agency, unless that agency is based abroad and does not have a trading address or representative in the UK. For any temporary workers that you pay directly, you will still need to operate PAYE, provided they are classed as an employee. Even if you will only be paying an employee once, you will still need to put this through PAYE, although the way in which you do this is different to when you will be paying an employee on a regular basis. What information do you need to work out their tax code? You will need to obtain certain information from your employee so that you can set them up with the correct tax code or starter declaration on your payroll software, including: their full name and address their gender and date of birth their National Insurance number their employment start date the leaving date from their last job their total pay and tax paid to date for the current tax year their student loan deduction status, and their existing tax code. You will usually get most of this information from any recent P45 that the employee is able to give to you from their last employer. A P45 provides a record of the amount an employee has earned in their previous employment and what taxes they have paid on their salary so far in the tax year. In this way, this allows the right information to be passed on to a new employer, to be inputted into their payroll software, to ensure that tax continues to be deducted from an employee at the correct rate. If your new-starter has more than one P45, you should use the one with the latest date and give the other back to them. If these have the same leaving date, you should use the P45 with the highest tax-free allowance. If the new-starter does not have their P45, they will need to complete the ‘HMRC starter checklist’ for PAYE. Equally, if they left their last job before 6 April 2021, and so have not been in work for more than a year, their P45 will no longer be valid. This is because a P45 is only valid for the tax year in which it was issued. If you receive a P45 for a prior tax year then you should not use this, but should instead ask the employee to complete the starter checklist, in this way providing you with information about the current tax year. The HMRC starter checklist can be found online at GOV.UK and can either be completed online and printed off to give to you, or downloaded and completed manually. The statement will ask the new-starter for their personal details and student loan deduction status. It will also ask them to select one of the following three statements: Statement A: “This is my first job since 6 April and since then I’ve not received payments from Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Incapacity Benefit.” This statement is typically for those who have not had any form of work before, even part-time, and are now starting their first paid job, for example, school leavers. Statement B: “Since 6 April I’ve had another job but I do not have a P45 and/or since the 6 April I’ve received payments from any Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or Incapacity Benefit." This statement is typically for those who have lost their P45 or did not receive a P45 from their last employer. Statement C: "I have another job and/or am in receipt of a State, Works or Private Pension.” If the employee receives payments from any pensions, they must not choose either statements A or B above, but rather statement C. Once the HMRC starter checklist has been completed by the employee, this form must be forwarded to your payroll department, so that this information can be recorded in your payroll software. Having obtained your employee’s information, you can use the online tool at GOV.UK to work out their tax code and starter declaration to use in your payroll software, and to establish what else to do before you pay your employee for the first time. The information obtained from a new-starter and provided to payroll must be retained as part of your records for the current year and the following three tax years. HMRC may check your records to see that you are paying the right amount of tax for your employees, where your payroll records must show that you have reported accurately. If you fail to keep accurate records, HMRC may estimate what you have to pay and charge you a penalty. Does your new-starter need to repay a student loan? If your new-starter has an outstanding student loan, you may be responsible for making deductions for repayments for this. You should make student loan deductions if either: your new-starter’s P45 shows that deductions should continue your new-starter tells you that they are repaying a student or postgraduate loan, for example, on their HMRC starter checklist, or HMRC sends you either form SL1 or form PGL1, and your employee earns over the income threshold for their loan. You will need to check these thresholds. Even if your new-starter has a P45 from their last job, you should ask them if they have a student or postgraduate loan, where they may have both. You must record their answer in your payroll software. If they finished their studies after 6 April in the current tax year, they will not begin to repay their loan until the following tax year. You do not need to calculate their loan recovery repayments as your payroll software will do this for you. If your new-starter has a student loan, you should ask them to sign in to their repayment account to check which plan to use for deductions or to contact the student loans company. If they are still not sure, use should use Plan 1 in your payroll software until you get an SL1. Where the new-starter is on more than one plan, start the student loan deductions for the plan with the lowest recovery threshold until you receive an SL1. The possible student loan plans are as follows: The employee will have a Plan 1 if either they lived in Northern Ireland when they began their course of studies, or in England or Wales and began before 1 September 2012 The employee will have a Plan 2 if they lived in England or Wales and began their course of studies on or after 1 September 2012 The employee will have a Plan 4 if they lived in Scotland and applied through the Students Award Agency Scotland (SAAS) when they began their course The employee will have a Postgraduate Loan if either they lived in England and began their Master’s course on or after 1 August 2016, lived in Wales and began their Master’s course on or after 1 August 2017, or lived in England or Wales and began their Postgraduate Doctoral course on or after 1 August 2018. How do you register your new-starter with HMRC? To register your new-starter with HMRC, you will not be required to send the completed HMRC starter checklist, but you will instead need to include their details on what is known as a Full Payment Submission (FPS) the first time that you pay them. You can use the information from the employee’s P45 or completed checklist to help fill this in. You can then use your payroll software to send an FPS on or before their first payday. On this first FPS, you will need to include the following: the information that you have collected from the employee the tax code and employee starter declaration that you have worked out the payments and deductions made since they started working for you, for example, Income Tax, National Insurance contributions and student loan deductions, but not including figures from their previous employment. For any employee that you will only be paying once, you will need to operate PAYE differently. In these circumstances, you must set up a payroll record with the employee’s full name and address, and if you give them a payroll ID, you must ensure that this is unique. When you send your FPS, you will need to use tax code ‘0T’ on a ‘Week 1’ or ‘Month 1’ basis, putting ‘IO’ in the ‘Pay frequency’ field, and do not put a start or leaving date. You must then give the employee a statement showing their pay, before and after deductions, and the payment date, for example, a payslip or letter. You do not need to give them a P45. What was the P46 and what has replaced this? The P46 was a tax form completed by new-starters who did not have a P45. This has been replaced with the HMRC starter checklist. In the same way as the P46, the starter checklist allows employers to add an employee to PAYE and calculate a temporary tax code for them. It is important, however, that when asked to complete the HMRC starter checklist, the individual selects the correct employee starter declaration, or they may end up paying either too much or too little tax under an emergency code. The starter checklist will help the employer to deduct the most accurate tax and National Insurance if they do not have the correct tax code from HMRC, although it may not necessarily be exact and require amendments in later payslips when the correct code is sent. If HMRC has sent you a tax code, you must use that code if your employee gives you a P45 or starter checklist after you have first paid them, deducting any student loan repayments from the date that they started working for you. You may need to update your payroll records if your employee later produces a P45 after you have registered them with HMRC. If the employee gives you a P45 from the outset, they will not also need to complete the HMRC starter checklist. This is because the P45 contains all of the information an employer will need to set up a new-starter on payroll with the right tax code. Any changes required to this code will be issued by HMRC directly to you as the employer. FAQ’s What is a HMRC starter checklist? A HMRC starter checklist is a form that new employees will need to complete if they don’t have their P45 or left their last job before 6 April 2021. Once completed, this must be sent to the employer’s payroll department. How do you fill in a starter checklist? The HMRC starter checklist can either be completed online and printed off, or downloaded and completed manually. This asks the employee for their personal details and to tick an employee starter declaration as to their last job and benefits received. What does starter checklist mean? The starter checklist is a form completed by a new-starter who does not have a P45 or was last employed prior to 6 April 2021. This will enable the employer to work out their tax code and complete payroll. What do I need if I don't have a P45? If you don’t have a P45, you can complete the HMRC starter checklist, providing your employer with your personal details, a declaration as to when you last worked, any benefits or pension received and your student loan deduction status.

Trade unions have started legal action against the UK Government to challenge new rules allowing agency workers to replace striking staff. Trade unions, led by the led by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), have begun judicial review proceedings, claiming that the new legislation permitting businesses to use agency workers to break strikes constitutes a “broad […]

Changes to Digital Right to Work Checks from 1 October

Changes to Digital Right to Work Checks from 1 October

From 1 October 2022, UK employers will be required to use government-certified identity service providers (IDSPs) when conducting digitial right to work checks. This is a change to the current guidance, which allows virtual checks to be conducted through video calls, apps or emails. Prior to the pandemic, right to work document checks had to […]

New Charter of Player Data Rights for Professional Football Players

New Charter of Player Data Rights for Football Players

New guidelines have been released by the football world players’ union, FIFPRO, outlining football players’ rights to control how their personal data is used. The Charter of Player Data Rights, which was created in collaboration with FIFA, the world players’ association, aims to establish a structure for managing and accessing performance and health-related data for […]

Queen’s Death: From Money to Passports – What Will Change?

Queen's death- what will change?

The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022 will lead to many changes in the UK. While some have already taken immediate effect, others are expected to be introduced over the coming months and years. British coins & notes New coins and notes will be designed and printed, but are not realistically […]

UK’s Rwanda Asylum Policy Challenged in High Court

UK's Rwanda Asylum Policy Challenged in High Court

UK legislation to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is being challenged today at the High Court. The legal action is being brought by a group of refugees and charities who are arguing that Boris Johnson’s controversial immigration policy is unlawful and breaches human rights conventions. The hearing is expected to last five days. The Nationality […]

Barristers Take Indefinite Strike Action Over Pay in England & Wales

Criminal Trials At Risk As Barristers Strike Over Pay

Criminal barristers in England and Wales are taking indefinite, uninterrupted strike action from Monday 5 September in a dispute over Legal Aid rates. The action is an escalation of the staged intermittent walkouts since the end of June, escalating to week-long strikes on alternate weeks throughout August. According to the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), which represents […]

Ofgem Threatened With Legal Action Over Price Cap Rise

Ofgem threatened with legal action over price cap rise

The UK energy regulator, Ofgem, is being threatened with legal action over the new energy price cap and its impact on customers. The action is being brought by the not-for-profit Good law Project, campaign group Fuel Poverty Action and Dion Alexander, the Chair of the Highlands & Islands Housing Associations Affordable Warmth Group. The groups are […]