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Contract: Word of mouth

Craig Bennett considers a recent Court of Appeal decision on the oral variation of contracts ‘The Court of Appeal has stated that, where a contract contains a provision which prohibits oral variations and only permits variations when they are in writing, this can be overridden if the parties so wish.’Many contracts, including PFI project agreements, …
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Slavery: Transparently fair

Chris Syder looks at the potential impact of the Modern Slavery Act ‘As a minimum, the Modern Slavery Act has led to consideration of existing business practices and whether these may influence and create a modern slavery risk.’The UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the Act) not only sets out stronger criminal sanctions against those who …
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Housing: All I want is a room somewhere

Nigel Howorth and Michael Coxall report on significant planning reforms ‘The Housing and Planning Act 2016 contains a wide range of planning reforms, many of which are aimed at speeding up the development of new housing stock.’The Housing and Planning Act 2016 (the Act) has received Royal Assent. It provides framework powers for a number …
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Regulation: Safe passage

John Doherty and Richard Reeve-Young explore the vexed question of legal professional privilege in the context of increasing regulation ‘Practitioners must carefully consider the identity of the individuals employed by their client company in order to ensure that advice given falls within the remit of legal advice privilege (LAP) and attracts the necessary protection from …
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IT: Better safe than sorry

In the second part of an examination of security risks in outsourcing, Dr Sam De Silva highlights the issues to be considered when drafting contracts ‘Customers should seek specialist advice to ensure that the security standard(s) referred to in their contract are relevant and appropriate for their outsourcing (and should not just rely on the …
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Compliance: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Crispin Rapinet and Khushaal Ved examine the here and now of enhanced UK efforts to make anti-bribery and corruption compliance the norm ‘Compliance policies may appear as a headache, but the consequences of failing to comply can lead to multimillion-pound fines, criminal convictions, a plummeting share price and potentially irreversible reputational damage.’Anti-bribery and corruption efforts …
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Damages: Of little consequence

Jeremy Farr and Shawn Kirby discuss the interpretation of a consequential loss clause ‘The correct starting point of interpretation of the clause was with the natural and ordinary meaning of the language chosen by the parties to give effect to their intent.’ In a decision with potentially far-reaching implications for commercial parties generally and the …
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EU Regulation: Steel yourself

Emily Heard questions whether updated procurement rules to support Britain’s steel industry have changed anything ‘It is unlawful to favour one operator over another just because it is from a home state. The government’s announcement of 3 April does not change this.’ On 3 April 2016, the government announced ‘new measures’ that it said would …
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Energy: A rose by any other name

Jonathan Bower and Richard Guyatt report on the White Rose carbon capture project ‘The relevance of the Secretary of State (SoS)’s decision to the wider infrastructure consenting regime is the importance given by the SoS to funding in the application process where compulsory acquisition powers are engaged.’The recent decision by the Secretary of State (SoS) …
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IT: Secure services

In the first of a two-part analysis, Dr Sam De Silva looks at the use of the outsourcing contract to manage security risks ‘The number of users with access to the system increases when a customer’s functions are outsourced to a third party. This in turn can increase the likelihood of the system being breached.’The …
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