Employee surveillance
Max Winthrop, a member of our employment law committee, spoke to the BBC about surveillance of employees.
He said surveillance of employees had increased massively as the technology became more accessible and as employers sought to keep tabs on employees working from home.
There isn’t a simple answer as to whether monitoring infringes an employee's privacy in the UK.
Max said: “It depends. A legitimate reason to monitor, such as the prevention of theft, or physical harm to employees, is likely to be considered favourably by a court or tribunal.
“Merely imposing an intrusive monitoring regime for no good reason, especially if monitoring takes place in areas or the workspace where employees could have a reasonable expectation of privacy, is not".
SQE pass-rate
Law Society president Lubna Shuja speaks to Roll on Friday about the attainment gap for Black, Asian and minority ethnic solicitors taking the Solicitors Qualifying Exam.
"We remain concerned about this gap, particularly as one of the aims of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam was to improve diversity and inclusion in the legal profession,” she said.
Register of Overseas Entities
The Gazette covers our property conference, which examined the register of overseas entities introduced as part of the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022.
The register is important for clients in property transactions involving overseas entities and solicitors verifying an overseas entity purchasing UK property.
Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill
The Gazette reports our views on the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, which had its second reading in parliament last week.
Lubna Shuja said: “We do have a concern, however, over the government’s proposal to allow the SRA the ability to impose limitless financial penalties for economic crime disciplinary matters.
“There appears to have been little evidence that a parallel increase in the Financial Conduct Authority fining powers – or the large fines they have applied – have aided the fight against financial crime.
“Therefore, we do not have confidence that increased fining powers for the SRA would have a significant enough impact on the fight against economic crime to warrant the additional burden of regulation.”
Bio-law report
News Nine covers our Law in the Emerging Bio Age report.
Read the report Law in the emerging bio-age
UK-India trade deal
The anticipated UK-India free trade agreement (FTA) is discussed in Financial Express.
In September, we met with the UK government’s Department of International Trade in Delhi to discuss the detail with Indian law firms and have long urged for legal services to be included in the deal.
Anti-money laundering breaches
Law360 (£) reports views that lawyers face ‘near impunity’ for anti-money laundering breaches.
A Law Society spokesperson said: “The Law Society and legal sector share the UK government’s determination to combat economic crime.
“Solicitors play a key role in the UK’s anti-money laundering (AML) and economic crime regime. They act as gatekeepers to the financial system.
“Solicitors in the UK are subject to some of the strictest AML obligations of lawyers anywhere in the world and spend significant amounts of time and money on compliance.”
Also worth a read:
- New Chancellor brings forward budget repair measures – Guardian
- Law Society immediate past president speaks on her tenure – Gazette
- Legal industry looks to more inclusion – FT (£)
- Rwanda flight: Braverman orders inquiry into lawyer – Telegraph (£)