The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), in partnership with Spend Network, has recently developed and launched a free tool to help procurers screen their tender data for signs of potential anti-competitive behaviour. For those in procurement, this will help to identify and investigate unfair practices. For those bidders working in an anti-competitive manner, this heightens the risk of revelation and investigation.
“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”
Steven Covey
I, like most other in-house lawyers I imagine, often find myself thinking about, or discussing with colleagues, the lack of time we have to do what needs to be done. The requirements to complete forms and other administrative tasks, attend conference calls or endless meetings, and be the first port of call for any “emergency” that arises can mean that there is little time left in the day for what we are actually trained to do: review, interpret and advise on the law.
It is now over a year since the first organisations were required to start producing their slavery and human trafficking statements in compliance with section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, making it possible to assess and compare the large number of statements already published. Continue reading
I started in the role of Chief Privacy Officer role at Pearson very recently, though I have been in the Legal team for eighteen years. I have been blessed with a wealth of resources at my disposal: a central Data Privacy Office team, policies for each area of the business, an incident response toolkit, an established privacy impact assessment process, memberships of various expert bodies and access to training and knowledge resources. I realise that probably makes me very lucky amongst many of you.
But even with the backing of good infrastructure, making best use of resources is key. So what have been the next steps?
Giving your employees access to the right speak up channels (or ‘intake’ channels) is a critical part of any whistleblowing programme.
But what are the most commonly used channels, what are their pros and cons, and which are likely to be the most effective within your organisation?
I attended Practical Law’s GC Leadership Summit last week. This year’s central theme was innovation which set the scene for some interesting discussions on corporate governance, the changing role of the general counsel and approaching the GDPR and cyber challenges, amongst other things. Here’s a whistle-stop tour of some of the key messages. Continue reading
The key developments this month were the formal start of Brexit negotiations and the publication of several Brexit-related Bills in the 2017 Queen’s Speech.
From Monday, a significant number of entities that were previously outside the scope for the PSC regime have been brought within it with a very narrow time frame to create their registers and provide details to Companies House.
The Information about People with Significant Control (Amendment) Regulations 2017 were published on 23 June and, as expected, took effect from 26 June 2017.
Practical Law has published a report on the results of the survey I previously wrote about which sought to examine how in-house lawyers, and the organisations they work in, were approaching Brexit.
The report can be accessed here and is also available in PDF format.
Key items on the agenda for businesses this month include digesting the implications of the new Bills and proposals announced in the Queen’s Speech, reviewing a report on directors’ remuneration voting trends and continuing preparations for GDPR.