Legislation / Legal
CLG: Proposed changes to the law, set out in a consultation paper (closes on 4 October 2007), will require landlords to provide their tenants with an annual statement showing how service charges are spent. The measures will be backed by new rights for tenants to withhold service changes where a landlord fails to comply.
The new rules mean at least 1m people living in leasehold flats in England will receive an itemised statement showing a breakdown of how much service charge money their landlord has spent in the last year on repairs, maintenance, improvements, professional fees and staff costs.
The proposals suggest that any single item of expenditure accounting for 10% of total spend, such as lift maintenance, utility bills, cleaning & refuse collection costs, will need to be shown separately. Landlords will also need to show balances of service charge monies held at the beginning and end of each year.
Press release ~ Consultation documents ~ Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 ~ Other related documents ~ Commonhold ~ CLG - Leasehold
DIUS: Any college recruiting students from abroad will need to be registered from 2009 on the new Home Office Sponsors' Register and to qualify for the register they will have to show they have been accredited by an approved body, which will demonstrate that they are a genuine education provider and prevent any acting as a front for the entry of bogus students or illegal immigrants to the country.
Many private education providers already have existing accreditation with one of these bodies which, if valid at the date of application and continues to be valid at the time the new student route is introduced, may be used to obtain registration.
The new rules are part of Britain's new Points Based System (PBS) for managing migration and the following accreditation bodies have been approved to accredit private educational institutions, before they can apply to register on the Home Office's PBS Sponsor Register:
* Accreditation UK
* The British Accreditation Council (BAC)
* The Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC)
The sponsor register is expected to open for registrations at the beginning of 2008. It will cover both employers bringing migrant workers to the UK (Tier 2) and educational establishments bringing international students to this country (Tier 4).
Press release ~ Points Based System (PBS) ~ A Points-Based System: Making Migration Work for Britain ~ BIA: Points Based System - The Accreditation of T4 (Students) Sponsors ~ Accreditation UK ~ British Accreditation Council (BAC) ~ Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC)
DWP: Women & carers received a boost recently thanks to the reforms to the state pension system in the Pensions Act 2007, which has now received Royal Assent. For many low income women, this could mean an extra £50 a week by the 2050s from the state pension, but the Act will gradually increase State Pension Age to 68 by 2046 for men & women.
As well as providing a boost for women and carers, the Act re-links the Basic State Pension with earnings from 2012 (or by the end of the next Parliament) and reduces the number of years' contributions required to achieve a full Basic State Pension to 30 for women & men from April 6, 2010, down from 39 years for women and 44 for men.
Press release ~ The Pensions Act 2007 ~ DWP - Pensions Reform ~ Home Responsibilities Protection (HRP) ~ Security in retirement: towards a new pension system ~ Personal accounts: a new way to save
MoJ: Companies whose gross negligence leads to the death of individuals will now face prosecution for manslaughter under new legislation. The Corporate Manslaughter Act is a landmark in law and the culmination of ten years of campaigning by unions and other groups.
Under the new law companies, organisations and, for the first time, Government bodies face an unlimited fine if they are found to have caused death due to their gross corporate health & safety failures. The Act will come into force on 6 April 2008 and the Ministry of Justice will issue further guidance for organisations affected by the Act in the Autumn.
Press release ~ The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 ~ The CPS: Corporate Manslaughter
MoJ: Legislation aimed at protecting the victims of forced marriages and preventing them from taking place has received Royal Assent, the Ministry of Justice has announced. Under the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act, where a forced marriage has or is about to take place, courts will be able to make orders to protect the victim or the potential victim and help remove them from that situation.
The courts will have a wide discretion in the type of injunctions they will be able to make to enable them to respond effectively to the individual circumstances of the case and prevent or pre-empt forced marriages from occurring.
Press release ~ The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 ~ Survivors Handbook ~ Forced Marriage Unit ~ Further help contact suggestions ~ FCO: Information for Professionals
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