Employers are reminded that the amount of unpaid parental leave that can be taken by parents in relation to each child under five years of age (or, in the case of an adopted child, in the five years after the placement) increased from 13 weeks
An army chef who won more than £15,000 compensation from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) after he was racially abused by a sergeant and a civilian contractor has had his pay-out more than halved. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruled that the MoD could not
With the backing of English Heritage and the National Trust, a local authority has won a High Court challenge to plans for a wind farm that conservationists fear could result in substantial harm to a heritage area of national significance. The High Court overturned a
An attempt to limit the right of a council to sell allotments and move the allotment holders to new allotments some distance away failed in the court recently. The council concerned wished to sell the land for housing and to move allotment holders to other
Two social workers who were dismissed by the London Borough of Haringey in the wake of the ‘Baby P’ scandal have failed to convince the Court of Appeal that they were unfairly treated. Arguments that it was an affront to legal principle that they faced
A landowner who allowed travellers to use his farm to celebrate a religious festival in breach of a judge’s order has been sentenced to four months’ imprisonment for his contempt of court. Although Errol Clarke apologised for his conduct, the High Court ruled that his
A local authority tenant has fought off attempts to terminate her tenancy of a six-bedroom London home where her family has lived for more than 30 years. The London Borough of Brent’s plea that the property was larger than was reasonably required by the tenant
A group of waste recycling companies have failed to convince the High Court that a European Union directive requiring the separate collection of paper, metal, plastic and glass has been inaccurately transposed into United Kingdom (UK) regulations which leave detailed decisions on waste collection in
A do-it-yourself (DIY) builder has triumphed in his fight for a substantial VAT rebate on materials he employed in the construction of his new home. The first-tier tribunal accepted the taxpayer’s argument that payment of the tax refund was not precluded by a planning condition
A mobile phone company that objected to a change in the method employed by the Office of Communications (Ofcom) to control mobile termination rates (MTRs) – resulting in its revenue from that source being more than halved – has had its complaints of unfairness and
