Ms Willoughby didn’t accept her employers attempt to withdraw the termination and brought a claim against them for unfair and wrongful dismissal. The Tribunal at first instance found for her employers on the basis that there were special circumstances brought about by a genuine misunderstanding. On appeal the EAT reversed the decision holding the dismissal didn’t fall into the category of special circumstances and that the dismissal was clear.

An Employment Tribunal has held that to retire officials at age 48 was discriminatory on the grounds of age. Whilst the Tribunal accepted that PGMOL were seeking to achieve a legitimate aim, in that the reason for the policy was that they were attempting to ensure that younger referees could progress to the elite panel, they could not justify the default retirement age set out in that policy.

In ‘The Coalition: our programme for government’, they state that they will ‘cut red tape by introducing a ‘one-in, one-out’ rule whereby no new regulation is brought in without other regulation being cut by a greater amount’. They also promise to ‘review employment and workplace laws, for employers and employees, to ensure they maximise flexibility for both parties while protecting fairness and providing the competitive environment required for enterprise to thrive’.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his Budget statement on 22nd June 2010.
Employers

The Budget announces the following measures for employers:

National Insurance Contributions

* Cutting national insurance making it cheaper for companies to employ people. The threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance will be raised by £21 per week above indexation in April 2011.
* A new tax scheme to help create new jobs in parts of Britain outside the Greater South East by exempting new businesses from up to £5,000 of employer National Insurance Contributions payments for each of their first 10 employees hired.

Income Tax

* The personal allowance for under 65s will be increased by £1,000 in April 2011, with gains limited to basic rate taxpayers.

Enterprise

The Chancellor said a long-lasting economic recovery must have its foundations in the private sector, not the public sector, and businesses across all regions need the right conditions to be able to grow.

The Budget announces the following measures for enterprise and growth:

* A reduction in corporation tax from 28 to 24 per cent over the course of four financial years from April 2011.
* A reduction in the small profits rate of corporation tax to 20 per cent from April 2011, instead of the planned increase to 22 per cent.
* An increase in Capital Gains Tax from 18 to 28 per cent for higher rate taxpayers, while the entrepreneurs’ relief life time limit will rise from £2 million to £5 million.
* To ensure that more small firms have access to credit, the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) will be increased by £200 million to support £700 million of additional lending until 31 March 2011. The EFG supports lending to small businesses that find it difficult to access the normal commercial loans.

VAT

* VAT will increase from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent from 4 January 2011, but items such as food, children’s clothes and books will remain zero-rated for VAT purposes.

Find more information about how the Budget impacts individuals at the Directgov website.

See more detailed information about the Budget at the HM Treasury website.

For 3 months I have been plagued with queries of “how’s your rhino?” – a question that is not as random as it first seems.  But I’m sensing I’ve lost you already, so let me go back to the beginning.

Rhino Mania is an event that is due to hit the streets of Chester on 5th July 2010.  For 10 weeks, the City will be littered with herds of brightly coloured rhino sculptures, designed and painted by all manner of regional and local artists.  You might have already seen something similar in Liverpool (Lambananas/Go Penguin), London (Elephant Parade) or Edinburgh (Cow Parade).  It’s intended to do one of two things, firstly to celebrate Chester’s cultural identity, and secondly to raise awareness about the plight of the black rhino which has been pushed to the brink of extinction.

As I am a lawyer, you’re probably wondering why on earth I’d be writing about this – the closest I must surely get to expressing my artistic creativity at work is deciding what colour shirt I should wear to the office.  Well apart from the fact that I work in Chester, I do have a vested interest in the event because I was lucky enough to design and paint two of the rhinos myself.  You can see them both below.

I guess here is where I go on to explain the motivation and inspiration behind each piece.  Being a lawyer, as opposed to an artist, there wasn’t really any ‘process’ to talk of – I literally took the brief to heart and tried to produce thought provoking but fun designs.  My hope is that I’ve managed to achieve both.
Let me talk you through the designs.

I have thoroughly enjoyed having the opportunity to take part in this event and have been honoured to work alongside such talented people. I can only express my heartfelt thanks to all those involved in putting Rhino Mania together and hope that I’ve shown that there is more at least to this lawyer than meets the eye.

Don’t forget the Rhinos will be out on the 5th July 2010 and having seen some of them, you’re in for a treat.

When a Trust comes to an end the Trustees have to pay off creditors and their own administration costs and thereafter pay any assets to the beneficiaries according to the terms of the Trust.

However there can be situations when Trustees are not aware of beneficiaries and/or creditors. In order to gain protection there are essentially two steps that Trustees can take, they can obtain insurance and/or advertise under Section 27 of the Trustee Act. An advertisement essentially allows Trustees to advertise for any creditors or beneficiaries of which the Trustees have no notice. If no-one responds the Trustees can distribute.

It is a useful provision that Trustees engaged in the winding up of a Trust will utilise. A difficult question however is what is “notice”.

In a recent case the Court had to consider the winding up of the Maxwell Pension Scheme. The Trustees had advertised for missing beneficiaries before purchasing insurance and using the surplus to provide increased benefits to the known members. However, after the distribution, the Trustees discovered that there were another 30 or so members who had been lost off the records. The insurers paid out those “lost” members and are now pursuing the Trustees in negligence.

The Court had to consider as a preliminary issue whether or not the Trustees had any liability because the Trustees had advertised and the missing beneficiaries had not responded.

The Court found that “notice” is not the same as knowledge. If a trustee forgets that a beneficiary exists this does not remove the fact that the Trustee had notice of that beneficiary. In other words if a Trustee ever knew of a beneficiary then simply forgetting about them will not allow the Trustees to claim protection under Section 27.

This decision emphasises the need for Trustees to maintain well administered records. Pension schemes can last for substantial periods and can have potentially thousands of members and so the importance of keeping records throughout the scheme and certainly at the end of a scheme is crucial for the Trustees’ protection.

Congratulations go to Jane Hillyer from our Employment team who managed to complete the London Marathon in an impressive 4 hours and 21 minutes and 6 seconds. She has managed to raise over £2000 for Claire House and we are very proud of her. Well done Jane!