The Legal 500

In December 2007, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) imposed a fine of £1.26m on Norwich Union Life (part of the Aviva Group), one of the largest life insurance businesses in the UK with around seven million customers. The fine related to failures to take reasonable care to establish and maintain effective systems and controls for countering the risks of financial crime. The fine is the latest confirmation of the emphasis being placed on protecting clients and customers from the threat of financial crime.

There are a number of aspects of the rules for tier 1 investors and entrepreneurs that are unclear or unnecessarily restrictive and we have been in extensive dialogue for many months now with the UKBA on a range of issues, both policy and technical.

If there is one part of the Localism Act 2011 about which local government lawyers have considerable concerns, it is the new standards regime.

Clive Sheldon QC

It has been announced by the UKBA that the list of approved English language tests for those individuals applying under tiers 1,2 and 4 of the points based system has been amended. One of the main changes is the lowering of the TOEFL points score against the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). TOEFL now includes scores for spouse and partner applications.

Important information about the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has been published online by the UKBA. With the UKBA expecting to carry out security checks on more than 380,000 workers and participants, it has set out detailed information for those individuals who will be travelling to the UK for the event. The information is divided into the following categories:

As reported in our November 2011 Update the UKBA is planning to introduce a 'premium sponsor' category and we expect that this will be in April 2012.

From 3 January 2012, individuals applying under tier 1 (exceptional talent) of the points based system will need to follow new guidelines if they wish to have their application endorsed by Arts Council England (ACE).

The UKBA has been contacting authorised officers at tier 2 sponsors in relation to the new certificate of sponsorship allowance which will become effective from 6 April 2012. Any COS issued from that date will come from the new allocation.

The UKBA has reminded all current tier 4 sponsors that if they are not already subject to inspection or review by the relevant educational oversight bodies, they must apply before the deadline stated in the current sponsor guidance.

From 1 January 2012 the UKBA will begin to process visas for non-UK spectators wishing to travel to the UK to watch the Olympic and Paralympic Games.