Forbes Commercial Law Blog

Environmental Information Regulations Applied To Duchy Of Cornwall As Public Body

Posted on 04 Nov 2011 by Daniel Milnes

An Information Tribunal ruling has applied the Environmental Information Regulations to the Duchy of Cornwall despite its protestations that it was a private body and outside the scope of the EIR. The case arose after a request made to the Duchy under the EIR for information about the possible environmental impact of non-native species of oyster being used at its oyster farm. The EIR have always run wider than their big brother the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and have applied to contractors engaged by public bodies in some circumstances. Read more

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Forbes At The Downtown Lancashire Economic Forum With Bank of England Economist Adam Posen

Posted on 21 Oct 2011 by Daniel Milnes

At the recent Downtown Lancashire In Business Economic Forum, Adam Posen of the bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee gave a masterclass on what’s happening in the national and international economy. After a quick grilling from BBC Radio Lancashire, Forbes presented the results of the 2011 Lancashire Business Survey – Lancashire Business Channel was there to catch some of the highlights on camera including some guest appearances by some familiar Forbes faces. Read more

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Minister’s Waste Disposal Raises Data Protection Questions

Posted on 14 Oct 2011 by Daniel Milnes

Oliver Letwin’s plan of dumping parliamentary documents in public bins might come to the attention of the Information Commissioner depending on what was in them. Certainly it is not the sort of Freedom of Information through pro-active dissemination that the FOI Act has in mind. Read more

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If Football was in the real world…

Posted on 28 Sep 2011 by Jonathan Holden

Carlos Tevez would be facing the sack (or at the very least a disciplinary) following his apparent refusal to come off the bench to play in last night’s Champions League match against Bayern Munich. Read more

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Companies House Changes SIC Codes For Annual Returns From 1 October

Posted on 27 Sep 2011 by Daniel Milnes

Companies House is changing the way in which comapanies describe their business activities and the change will affect all Annual Returns from 1 October 2011.

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ICO Takes Data Protection Enforcement Against Public Body Over Violent Client List

Posted on 27 Sep 2011 by Daniel Milnes

The Information Commissioner has required a local authority to give an undertaking admitting breaches of data protection rules in relation to a list it kept of potentially violent clients. While the list was maintained to safeguard the council’s staff and contractors, the way in which it was compiled and managed breached the Data Protection Act. Read more

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Success at Downtown Lancashire Business Awards 2011

Posted on 23 Sep 2011 by Daniel Milnes

Congratulations to our very own Pauline Rigby for taking the coveted (especially by those on the shortlist i.e. me) Professional of the Year title at last night’s awards ceremony and to all the team for our appearance on the Law Firm of the Year shortlist. Read more

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Companies House Announces New Stricter Filing Rules

Posted on 04 Aug 2011 by Daniel Milnes

The importance of getting it right just got more important! Companies House has announced that from 1 September 2011 they will reject any documents that are sent for filing that include an incorrect spelling or abbreviation of the company name. Read more

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Disciplinaries And Human Rights

Posted on 03 Aug 2011 by Jonathan Holden

A decision was handed by the High Court this week on a thorny issue of how far the Human Rights Act applies to internal disciplinary hearings.  There has already been a suggestion that an employee may in certain circumstances allowed to have legal representation at an internal disciplinary on Human Rights grounds (as in, for example R v. Governors of X School); and in Mattu v. Coventry and Warks NHS Trust the High Court considered whether Article 6 of the Human Rights Act entitled an employee to an ‘independent and impartial panel’ to hear his disciplinary hearing. Read more

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Star Wars Copyright Litigation – Supreme Court Rules Against Lucasfilm

Posted on 31 Jul 2011 by Daniel Milnes

The law of copyright has long been an area of uncertainty for many businesses who are often unsure as to whether or not they enjoy exclusive rights to exploit their creative assets or unaware that they may not actually own the copyright and the protection that it affords. Indeed, even the largest of corporate empires like Lucasfilm are not immune from the precarious world of copyright, as a recent ruling in the Supreme Court involving litigated intellectual property rights claimed by the production company behind the Star Wars movies has highlighted. Read more

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