Welcome to the Winter edition of the Charities & Third Sector Newsletter.

The University College Union (UCU) has been successful in a claim against Stirling University for protective awards. The University took the decision to end the contracts of 100 fixed term workers without carrying out collective consultation with the trade unions.

Almost 30,000 UK employers need to take action to comply with Pension Auto Enrolment by July 2014.

On 7 October the Department for Energy and Climate Change announced that state aid approval had been granted by the European Commission for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for non-domestic generators.

Following on from our e-update on the new EU cookie Regulations, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has published further guidance on how businesses should implement the regulations, and it is giving website owners 12 months to comply with the new law.

13th March is an auspicious day in the history of computing; 20 years ago, British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, ("CERN"), wrote his proposal for a system to enable physicists and other scientists to share information; this proposal for a common language and search facilities grew into the hypertext mark-up language ("HTML") language which forms the basis of today's worldwide web.

The Bribery Act has made the news again following the conviction of a would be taxi driver. Earlier this week, at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, Mr Mawia Mushtaq became the second person convicted of an offence under the Bribery Act by attempting to bribe a Licensing Officer.

For those employers running HMRC-registered share schemes and incentive plans that benefit from tax advantages, some key HMRC deadlines are fast approaching.

The Scottish Government has now announced that it will hold a consultation, launching today (13 July) and ending on 26 August 2016, into how the Apprenticeship Levy can enhance productivity and economic growth in Scotland.

The UK food and drink industry continues to be a growing and dynamic sector on all fronts. From a legal perspective there have been lots of interesting contentious and non-contentious developments over the course of the last year.

Further to our recent e-update "Founder of Consulting Association to go on Trial" Ian Kerr, the founder of the Consulting Association which illegally stored and sold employees confidential data, pleaded guilty at Macclesfield Magistrates Court to breaching the Data Protection Act.

Education Secretary Michael Gove announced last week that The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme – the large, government-funded initiative responsible for the replacing and renewal of hundreds of schools and academies in England and Wales - is to be halted, with all BSF programmes which had not reached financial close being cancelled.

The expiry date for Business Premises Renovation Allowance ("BPRA") has been extended by five years to April 2017.

In this podcast, marking 25 years since the coming into force of The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, Neil Kelly is joined by Adjudicator and Barrister, Tony Bingham.

Following on from our earlier updates ‘It's official – holiday pay must include voluntary overtime and commission'.

In England and Scotland respectively, the Administrators of a tenant company are bound to account to the landlord of premises for rent due in relation to the period during which those premises are being used in connection with the administration, and the rent is to be paid as an expense of the administration.

Today marks the 4th European Data Protection Day, a "celebration" marking the anniversary of the first European convention relating to data protection.

It can often seem that the burden of legal compliance for directors is getting heavier and heavier.

The issue of social networking in the context of employment has reared its ugly head once again, this time in relation to English football's biggest club, Manchester United.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has fined online travel services company Think W3 Limited £150,000 following a data protection breach arising from insecure "coding" on the website of their subsidiary business Essential Travel Limited.