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Infrastructure: Northern Lights

Sheridan Treger and Paul Grace examine the condition of the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ concept and what it might mean for promoters of major development in planning terms ‘In light of recent developments, one would now expect the “Northern Powerhouse” to provide a pan-regional dimension to the case for a scheme’s planning benefits.’When informed of a rumour …
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Contract: The age of reason

Sarah Boland considers a recent ruling on the UCTA unreasonableness test ‘It is not necessary for the full suite of a party’s standard written terms and conditions to be incorporated into a contract before the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA) will apply.’The High Court has found that the requirement of reasonableness imposed by the …
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Agency: Not so secret agents

Kayleigh Bloomfield discusses the (ir)revocability of agency agreements and constructive trusts upon insolvency ‘Matters have the potential to become more difficult when one party wants to bring the agent-principal relationship to an end and the other does not, particularly where commission is at stake. As a result, an agent may seek to argue that their …
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Planning: Good neighbours

Robert Bruce summarises proposed planning legislation ‘The new Bill seeks to ensure pre-commencement conditions are only imposed by local planning authorities with the agreement of developers or where they are “absolutely necessary”.’The government has recently announced that it will bring forward a new Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill in the Queen’s Speech. The purpose of …
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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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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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Modern Slavery Act: Transparency key

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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