The Serious Fraud Office ("SFO") has announced it is opening an investigation into alleged incidents of bribery that were thought to have been dealt with in March this year.

The 'Taylor Review' has published its Report which makes 85 recommendations for extensive changes to the system of costs and funding of civil litigation in Scotland.

It has been widely reported that British Petroleum (BP) has been in contact with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) over recent allegations of bribery and corruption carried out by one of its contractors in Azerbaijan.

The Serious Fraud Office published their Code of Practice in relation to the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) system in England & Wales on 14 February 2014.

A recent survey, carried out by Ernst & Young, revealed that 48% of businesses are failing to vet their suppliers for compliance with the UK Bribery Act 2010.

Ernst & Young recently carried out a survey among middle managers and found that many consider any spending of more than £100 per person "lavish".

This is the first high profile arrest of an individual under the Bribery Act 2010.

This is a short update to alert our readers to some increases scheduled for next year.

The Inner House of the Court of Session has agreed with the Employment Appeal Tribunal that the Employment Tribunal was wrong when it found that the expiry of fixed term contracts should be included when calculating the number of employees the employer was proposing to dismiss as redundant for collective consultation purposes (UCU v The University of Stirling).

The EAT decided in 2013 that an employer had to count all proposed dismissals across all establishments in assessing whether or not the collective redundancy consultation requirements applied.

The recent decision by the First-tier Tribunal in "Reid v HMRC" is a timely reminder for employers and employees of the importance of carefully analysing the tax status of all elements of a termination payment.

Yesterday, the Employment Appeal Tribunal issued its Judgment in the case of McWilliam & Others v Glasgow City Council, in which the EAT considered the requirements outlined under Section 77 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in relation to compromise agreements.

The UK government this week indicated that charities are not to be given special exemptions from the employer debt provisions of the Pensions Act 1995.

The budget notice for the first allocation round for Contracts for Difference (CfDs) has been published today.

This week, a Los Angeles City Council panel endorsed restrictions on electronic cigarettes which would prohibit their use in a range of public spaces and most workplaces.

The Tribunal Service has released its annual statistics report for 2009/10. The report covers the period 1 April 09 to 31 March 2010. The key findings indicate a sharp increase in the number of claims being brought to the Tribunal, believed, at least in part, to be a consequence of the economic recession.

"Is a private employer permitted to prohibit a female employee of Muslim faith from wearing a headscarf in the workplace? And is that employer permitted to dismiss her if she refuses to remove the headscarf at work?"

The Government is consulting on extending compensation for PPF beneficiaries with 21 or more years' pensionable service in schemes of insolvent employers.

If any term of an employment contract will involve breaking the law (or is "tainted with illegality" in the restrained language of the law) then public policy dictates that the parties should not have access to the courts to resolve disputes and that can sometimes bar otherwise good unfair dismissal claims.

A decision has been made today on the landmark case Eweida & Others v UK at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).