Category: Latest News

The government has published proposals to punish individuals who mishandle pension scheme management. Two new offences are proposed. The first will target individuals who wilfully or recklessly mishandle pension schemes, endangering workers’ pensions, by such things as chronic mismanagement of a business; or allowing huge unsustainable deficits to build up; or taking huge investment risks;… Continue reading Pensions – Time to Rethink Corporate Responsibility

Whilst in an ideal world, we would all have positive family relationships, family ties are often complicated and can sometimes break down. Family solicitors can help with a wide variety of legal matters and in our latest post, we discuss the areas that a family law solicitor can help with. Children If a relationship breaks… Continue reading The Role of a Family Solicitor

The short answer is: maybe. Section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 provides a defence to specific criminal charges where it is shown that they were committed under a compulsion due to slavery or exploitation (for over-18s) or as a direct consequence of slavery or exploitation (for under-18s). The latter test, for children, is… Continue reading Modern Slavery – A Defence to Drug Dealing and other offences?

Whilst some individuals purchase counterfeit money in order to profit from this illegal activity, others feel they are put into this position through straitened financial times. While the price of such ‘currency’ fluctuates widely, it is often as low as 25% of the face value, making it a tempting proposition. State currency producers spend millions… Continue reading Counterfeit Currency – You May Pay a Very High Price

The Home Secretary will this week hold an urgent meeting with police chiefs to discuss the recent rise in knife crime. This follows another week of senseless killings and the publication of figures that show the number of people aged 16 and under being stabbed rose by 93% between 2016 and 2018. Channel 4 found,… Continue reading Knife Crime – Searching for Solutions

HMRC is reported to be investigating alleged violations of a new criminal offence, part of the crackdown on money laundering, for the first time. A freedom of information request made by law firm Greenberg Taurig, revealed there are five current criminal investigations. The Criminal Finances Act 2017 introduced the new offence of failing to prevent… Continue reading Facilitating Tax Evasion

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 confers a power to make regulations if an ‘emergency’ has occurred or is about to occur. In other words, a power to declare a state of emergency and make regulations to deal with it. The reason that this is currently interesting is that the definition of emergency within the Act… Continue reading Civil Contingencies Act, Martial Law and a State of Emergency

The government has published an Offensive Weapons Bill, which is designed to signal a more stringent approach to the possession of weapons and liquids that can be used to cause harm, such as corrosive substances. The Bill forms part of the government’s response to the recent rise in serious violence, set out in the £40… Continue reading Weapons – Government to Get Tough

Hacking has been in the news a great deal in the last couple of years, for example, the 2016 US Presidential Elections, the extradition case of Lauri Love and the hacking of user accounts of various large companies in order to steal personal information. At the other end of the spectrum, we see cases of… Continue reading Computer Hacking

Section 45 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 makes it is an offence to participate in the activities of an organised crime group, this is a new offence created by the 2015 legislation. Why a New Offence? The offence was created to work alongside the offence of conspiracy. A conspiracy charge is aimed at the… Continue reading Participating in Organised Crime