Legislation / Legal

ScotGov: Measures designed to complete the package of reforms to the tenant farming sector has been published in the Agricultural Holdings (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill. The Bill makes changes to rent review arrangements to ban "upward only" and "landlord only" initiated rent reviews as well as making it easier for grandchildren to inherit farm tenancies.
Press release & links
 
JC: Custodial sentences should be introduced for breaches of the Data Protection Act, MPs on the Justice Committee urge the Government in a recent report. The report raises concerns that fines provide an inadequate deterrent when the financial rewards for illegal behaviour are so great.
Press release & links
 
HSE: A Merthyr Tydfil-based recycling company has been fined for failing to take appropriate measures to control the risk of exposure of its workers & the public to the potentially fatal Legionella bacteria.

 The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Merthyr Industrial Services (Biomass) Limited following an investigation of its premises as part of HSE's response to the outbreak of Legionnaires' disease along the Heads of the Valleys corridor in September 2010..
Press release & links
 
HSE: H G Gladwell and Sons Ltd, which manufactures animal feed & pet food at Copdock Mill just outside Ipswich, has been prosecuted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).  A factory worker was killed when his neck was crushed by a pneumatic hatch on a pet food mixing machine.
Press release & links
 
CC: The Competition Commission (CC) has published an addendum to the provisional findings of its local bus services market investigation showing that some large bus companies, particularly in the North-East of England, have taken action, which had an adverse effect on competition. The CC describes ways in which certain large bus companies seek to protect their own ‘core’ territories.
Press release & links
 
HSE: A Trafford firm has been fined £145,000 after an employee plunged 10 metres through a fragile roof onto a concrete floor, and died two years later from his injuries. J Mills (Contractors) Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to put any safety measures in place to stop 32-year-old Alan Kerwin falling while he was replacing a skylight on a warehouse in Ashton-under-Lyne. 
Press release & links
 
MoJ: An order has come into effect bringing the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), university admissions body UCAS, and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) under the scope of the Freedom of Information Act (FoI).  The Ministry of Justice has extended the Act to these 3 bodies, following a period of consultation, on the basis that they all perform functions of a public nature.
Press release & links
 
IS: 2 more companies have become the latest in a string of companies wound-up following an investigation by The Insolvency Service for landbanking activities.  As well as selling worthless land, the companies even attempted to sell land they did not own.
Press release & links
 
MoD: The principles of the Armed Forces Covenant have been enshrined in law for the first time after the Armed Forces Bill received Royal Assent.
Press release & links
 
DWP: Help for firms to automatically enrol staff into workplace pensions from next year is now law, as the Pensions Bill received Royal Assent.  Starting from October 2012 employers will begin to automatically enrol eligible workers into a qualifying pension scheme and contribute to that pension.
Press release & links
 
ScotGov: It is time for Scotland's Parliament to join forces with those across Scotland who are serious about tackling our battle with alcohol misuse, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has said as the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) Bill was published - See ‘In the News’ section for more information.
Press release & links
Free, Secure, Compliant UK Public Sector IT Recycling Service