On 17 April, the European Parliament adopted new rules to protect whistleblowers. The rules are designed to encourage the reporting of breaches of EU law by offering to whistleblowers EU-wide protection from dismissal, demotion and other forms of retaliation in areas including public procurement, financial services, money laundering, product and transport safety, nuclear safety, public health, consumer and data protection. Those assisting whistleblowers, such as facilitators, colleagues and relatives will also be protected. Under the…

Summary This landmark judgment from the UK Supreme Court means that the claim brought by 1,826 Zambian villagers against UK-based Vedanta and its Zambian subsidiary KCM can proceed to a trial of the substantive issues in the English courts. One of the issues that now falls to be examined is the controversial question of whether a parent company can be liable for the operations of its subsidiary, in the English courts. We set out below…

Earlier this month, the House of Lords Select Committee (the Committee) on the Bribery Act 2010 published its Post-Legislative Scrutiny Report. The Report provides a useful summary of prosecutions under the Bribery Act and the debate surrounding “adequate” and “reasonable” procedures,  and offers insight into the limited extent to which Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) lead to bribery investigations. Surprisingly, however, the Report considers the use of deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) but does not deal with…

On 19 March 2019, the European Parliament Working Group on Responsible Business Conduct (RBC Group) announced the contents of its Shadow EU Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct (the Plan). The Plan sets out the RBC Group’s priorities to ensure the promotion and protection of human rights in the EU business sector over the next six years (2019-2024). The Plan was conceived as a reaction to the alleged failure by the EU to fully implement…

Earlier this year BlackRock’s Chairman and CEO Larry Fink published his annual letter to the asset management firm’s investee companies. For the second year in a row Fink has focused on social impact. At the beginning of the letter he addresses the importance of practices that “will drive sustainable, long-term growth and profitability”. Fink acknowledges that companies are increasingly being held to “more exacting standards” by their stakeholders and stresses that business success in today’s…

In December 2018, the UK Government announced that it will introduce a new statutory code of practice to tackle workplace sexual harassment following a July 2018 report from the House of Commons’ Women and Equalities Select Committee (the Committee). The Committee’s report called on the Government to: Prioritise sexual harassment: The report calls on the Government to place employers under a mandatory duty to protect workers from harassment and victimisation which would be enforceable by…

On 28 January 2019, the UK Government (the Government) explained the timetable to the new 2023 deadline for the creation of public beneficial ownership registers in the British Overseas Territories (BOTs). The Government has explained that draft legislation will be prepared by the end of 2020, as required by the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 and the BOTs will be expected to have public registers in place by the end of 2023, in line…