UK Archives

In Product Regulation & Liability

United Kingdom: Prohibitions against medical cannabis were eased almost 4 years ago. Has there been further relaxation since?

July 19, 2022 by Julia Gillert 3 Mins Read

In November 2018, the law surrounding the prescription of medical cannabis was changed by the British Home Office. Promising developments occurred in the year after this, including the approval of a cannabis based drug for childhood epilepsy and the opening of London’s first medical cannabis clinic with 150 patients on a waiting list. Nevertheless, almost four years on from the relaxation of barriers to access, it appears that minimal tangible progress has been made, particularly as it pertains to patient access which was the key motivation triggering government officials such as Home Secretary Sajid Javid to change the law in 2018.

In Employment

United Kingdom: Changes to trade union law announced – agency workers and damages for unlawful industrial action

July 18, 2022 by Jonathan James Tuck, Richard Cook and Mandy Li 2 Mins Read

The government has announced that it is proposing to make changes to trade union law that will remove the current prohibition on businesses using temporary workers to cover staff taking part in industrial action. It has also announced that it plans to quadruple the maximum amount of damages that a court can award against a trade union for unlawful strike action from GBP 250,000 to GBP 1 million. These changes will need to be approved by Parliament.

In Product Regulation & Liability

UK: ‘But what about HealthTech?’ – The BEIS announcement on UKCA Marking does not cover medical devices

July 15, 2022 by Julia Gillert 2 Mins Read

Medical device companies anticipating new rules post-Brexit may be feeling somewhat overlooked to hear the BEIS’s recent announcement regarding UKCA marking. From this announcement, it transpired that the UKCA marking announcement did not include medical devices and in-vitro medical devices.

In Product Regulation & Liability

UK: Is the UK set to become an even bigger international player in medicinal and medical device regulation

July 15, 2022 by Julia Gillert 2 Mins Read

The MHRA has been accepted as a full member of three groups: the International Medical Device Regulatory Forum (IMDRF), the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) and the US-based Medical Devices Innovation Consortium. These partnerships bolster the MHRA’s position as an influential international player in medicinal and medical device regulation and restore the MHRA’s ties with the IMDRF and ICH.

In Corporate Compliance

United Kingdom: Action, not aspiration

July 10, 2022 by Ben Farnell, Peter Moules, Katherine Lang and Jo Shakespeare 7 Mins Read

Environmental sustainability, social justice and proactive corporate governance will increasingly underpin the ESG agenda in the real estate sector for investors, occupiers and stakeholders alike. Buildings are responsible for almost 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, meaning our industry clearly has work to do if the UK is to achieve net-zero by 2050. The terms “net-zero” and “greenwashing” do not sit well together, and if the former is to win out, the UK will need an ambitious regulatory framework, coupled with unwavering buy-in from the boardroom to the living room. “Action, not aspiration” is the UK government’s message.

In Employment

United Kingdom: Employee engagement and ethical culture

July 9, 2022 by Annabel Mackay, Samantha Pickett and Rachel Farr 1 Min Read

In a briefing published by Regulatory Intelligence, Annabel Mackay and Samantha Pickett explain the importance of cultivating an ethical culture from a financial regulatory, employment law and employee engagement perspective, and suggest how leaders can use communication strategies to do so.

In Employment

United Kingdom: Direct pay offers made following an impasse with union constituted unlawful inducements

July 9, 2022 by Jonathan James Tuck, Richard Cook and Mandy Li 6 Mins Read

The Employment Appeal Tribunal had upheld a decision of the employment tribunal that two companies within the same group had made unlawful inducements relating to collective bargaining under section 145B of the Trade Unions and Labour Relations (“Consolidation”) Act when it made direct offers of pay to its employees after it reached an impasse in negotiations with the recognised trade union. Although the tribunal’s decision pre-dated the Supreme Court’s decision in Kostal v. Dunkley, its findings were “presciently, so close in language to the test enunciated by the Supreme Court” that its conclusion was entirely consistent with the correct legal test as set out in Kostal.

In Corporate Compliance

United Kingdom: Treasury confirms direct regulation of critical third-party service providers

July 8, 2022 by Mark Simpson, Sue McLean, Kimberly Everitt and Lorraine Dindi 6 Mins Read

Mirroring earlier proposals by the European Commission, in a move anticipated by the industry, HM Treasury has confirmed that it will implement a regime whereby third-party firms designated as “critical” will be subject to direct regulatory oversight by the financial regulators. The Treasury published a policy statement on 8 June 2022, setting out its framework for mitigating the risks caused by financial services firms outsourcing important functions to third-party service providers.

UK Supreme Court rules no entitlement for consumers to an “absolute level of safety” in product liability case

July 8, 2022 by Kate Corby, Joanne Redmond and Lauren Gest 4 Mins Read

The appellant in the case of Hastings (Appellant) v Finsbury Orthopaedics Ltd and another (Respondents) (Scotland) [2022] UKSC 19, has failed to demonstrate to the UK Supreme Court (UKSC) that a prosthetic hip (manufactured by the respondents, each making separate parts) used in a metal-on-metal hip replacement was defective. Rather, the UKSC unanimously upheld the finding of the lower courts and concluded that the nature of the product meant that there could be no entitlement to an absolute level of safety.
The judgment is likely to be welcomed by those involved in the manufacture and distribution of medical devices and other health care products, as it continues the pragmatic approach of the UK courts in seeking to balance the need to achieve a high level of consumer protection against a robust assessment of the standards which the public can realistically expect manufacturers to achieve.

In Internal Investigations

Future of Disputes UK

July 6, 2022 by Steve Abraham, Yindi Gesinde, Edward Poulton, Ash Chandhok Tiwari, Dr. Markus Altenkirch LL.M., Mark Banks, Katia Finkel, Carinne Kamdar, Ben Ko, Ben Levitt, Richard Molesworth and Jack Secunda 4 Mins Read

Our Future of Disputes UK Virtual Programme brought speakers from leading in-house institutions – including AON, Gilead, GPW Group, HSBC, JP Morgan, Rio Tinto, Salesforce and Siemens – together with Baker McKenzie dispute resolution specialists to discuss key challenges in litigation, arbitration and investigations likely to arise over the next year.
We tackled the practicalities around contract disputes and termination, engaging with government and regulators, strategies to manage litigation risk arising from internal investigations, and provided an overview of how case lifecycles are likely to unfold following recent reforms of litigation and arbitration mechanisms. Our speakers share insights garnered from managing complex, multijurisdictional disputes and offer strategies to help you shape your organisation’s business resilience and readiness for litigation in the medium and long term.