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Recent years have seen an increase in the use of delegated legislation to implement major policy decisions in the UK. This has exacerbated the longstanding criticism that Westminster lacks sufficiently robust procedures for parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation. However, the UK is not the only country to use delegated legislation, or to face the challenge of ensuring it receives adequate parliamentary scrutiny. This article therefore places the UK system in wider context by comparing it to six other national parliaments. We highlight one comparative strength of the UK system, two weaknesses it shares with the other six cases, and one way in which the UK might learn lessons from elsewhere. Overall, our evidence suggests that no one country offers a clear template for more rigorous parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation. Successful reform of the UK's system is likely to require creative procedural innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenge that delegated legislation poses to parliamentary sovereignty and associated supremacy in the UK is purportedly addressed through what we term the 'constitutional bargain of delegated law-making'. This has three elements: the proper limitation of delegation by Parliament through well-designed parent legislation; the exercise of self-restraint by the Executive in the use of delegated authority; and the enablement of meaningful scrutiny by Parliament. As a paradigm situation in which delegated law-making might be said to be necessary, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic is an apposite context in which to assess the robustness of that bargain. Our analysis uses a sample of Westminster-generated pandemic-related secondary instruments as a peephole into the broader dynamics of this constitutional bargain and further reveals its significant frailties; frailties that are exposed, but not created, by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial numbers of criminal offences are created in the UK in delegated legislation, often carrying heavy maximum penalties. The majority are created in statutory instruments passed under the negative resolution procedure, which offers very limited opportunity for scrutiny and does not involve a parliamentary vote. This phenomenon has slipped under the radar of orthodox criminal law scholarship, where debate has focused primarily on the criteria that should be used to determine the content of the criminal law and on the principles to which such offences should conform, rather than on the process of creating criminal offences. Creating offences in delegated legislation raises questions of democratic legitimacy and has resulted in criminal offences being created which do not conform to basic principles of fair notice and proportionality of penalty. To address this, we propose that parliamentary approval should be required for all serious offences. It would be impractical to do this for all criminal offences, and direct participation in the legislative process via consultation can act as an alternative (or additional) legitimating principle. This does, however, require that the consultation process complies with certain basic minimum requirements, and we explain how these requirements might appropriately be framed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In June 2022, the UK Government enacted Regulations purporting to remove the offence of introducing or supplying workers to cover those on strike. In R. (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen) v Secretary of State the High Court held that the decision-making process preceding the enactment of the Regulations was unlawful and quashed them. This analysis outlines the case, with a particular focus on the central role played by the existence of a statutory duty to consult in the court's reasoning and the extent to which third party interests were considered in the course of determining the proper remedy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the common law system in terms of sources of law, in the British system, the term legislation being used to describe the statutes of Parliament and delegated legislation, and the formula case law to designate both common law and equity. Statute law or Acts of Parliament represents in the law system of Great Britain the equivalent of the laws adopted in the Romanian law by the Romanian Parliament, and the term delegated legislation describes all those rules adopted by authorities other than the Parliament of the United Kingdom, but under its authority. At the same time, it is characteristic of the British jurisprudential system to publish cases settled by the courts of law or to report them, this activity being carried out by lawyers, by a barrister or by a solicitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about the 2015 refusal by Great Britain's House of Lords to approve a tax credit statutory instrument that threatened to create a constitutional stand-off. Topics discussed include a review over the power of the Lords over statutory instruments called the Strathclyde review, parliamentary committees' reports in response to the review, and a study on the delegated legislation system in Great Britain.

This article focuses on the use and abuse of delegated legislation in Great Britain. Inadequacies in the scrutiny of delegated legislation have been a recurrent of subordinate theme in the reform of parliamentary procedure. Some safeguards are said to exist in the process of consultation before the parent Bill is introduced. The courts exercise a form of restraint over delegated legislation, because they are able to inquire whether a piece of delegated legislation has been drafted within the powers conferred by the parent Act. This article presents an elaborate discussion on the use and abuse of delegated legislation relating to the provisions of Jews and Sunday trading.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the available judicial precedence using both the United Arab Emirates and UK laws to bring up a much broader understanding of wrongful and fraudulent trading concepts and provide a critical analysis of potential personal liabilities of directors in the UK and UAE jurisdictions for the acts of fraud and mismanagement. Design/methodology/approach: This paper seeks to understand corporate fraud from the aspect of trading. It will take an in-depth look into wrongful trading and fraudulent trading in the UAE and UK jurisdictions while analyzing the punishment for the same. The study will also look at famous cases for the same while seeking to understand the mitigation measures undertaken in various nations across the world. Findings: The author studies the contents and provisions of the UK Insolvency Act 1986, truly the concepts of wrongful trading and fraudulent trading are not explicitly mentioned in the UAE Law, but the said terms associated with "lifting of corporate veil" are notionally existent under the UAE Federal Law No2/2015, otherwise known as Companies Law (Articles 84 and 162-1), and under the UAE Bankruptcy Law (Federal Decree Law No. 9 of 2016), which provides legislation governing trading while the company is insolvent. Originality/value: In the current paper, the author is keen to examine the available judicial precedence to bring up a much broader understanding of the mentioned concepts and provide a critical analysis of potential personal liabilities of directors in the UK and UAE jurisdictions for the acts of fraud and mismanagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit is already posing many major challenges for those concerned with health and social care. This article explores one area, that of the regulation of medical devices which has been fundamentally underpinned by EU law and asks what Brexit means for future regulation in the United Kingdom. This article begins by outlining the importance of ensuring standards of quality and safety for medical devices and the consequences if things go wrong. The second section of the article outlines the current EU regulation of medical devices. It explores questions such as the role of the notified bodies, the problems of lack of central regulation and the role of vigilance processes. The third section explores the options for medical device regulation post Brexit in the light of the ongoing reform of the law in this area and the implementation of new EU Regulations. It considers the prospects for reciprocity and for alignment in the future. The article concludes by arguing that, while the new system for regulation of medical devices in the EU is not perfect, it nonetheless provides an important opportunity for restructuring device regulation and providing greater opportunities for facilitating safety. It is important to ensure that, as far as possible, we do not lose such an opportunity at domestic level post Brexit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union (EU) Clinical Trials Regulation 536/2014, expected to come into force in 2019, provides for a streamlined single EU application for cross-border clinical trials and enhanced transparency of results. The status of the Regulation in post-Brexit UK is uncertain. Matters of regulatory alignment will be covered by agreements on the future EU-UK relationship. In the short term, implementation of the Regulation in the United Kingdom depends on the Brexit model and timing of the Regulation's implementation. The EU (Withdrawal) Act will convert EU law into UK law, including the vast array of EU life sciences regulation. However, the Regulation is likely to be implemented after the United Kingdom leaves the EU, but within the transition period. If the United Kingdom is not part of the legal framework governing clinical trials in the EU, then the United Kingdom will still need to comply with the global framework set out in the International Council on Harmonisation if it wants to be part of trials of medicinal products for which marketing authorization will be sought for licensing in the European Economic Area. This article extols the virtues of harmonization with the EU and attempts to counter some of the media focus on the advantages of a deregulated bespoke approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the Brexit process through the anthropological lens of liminality. As a concept that explains the impact of change and transformation on human experience, it is argued that liminality is an especially valuable perspective to understand better the phenomenon of Brexit, particularly as to how this might impact on the regulation of human health research. A central feature of liminality is its attention to process; that is, the identification of milestone thresholds within a series of events involving change. More particularly, liminality has a degree of predictive power about certain influencing factors on transformational processes and their outcomes. In this regard, the pivotal role of law is subjected to close scrutiny in the period leading up to March 29, 2018: one year before the so-called Brexit Day. The European Union (EU) (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017 was the threshold trigger for the Brexit process, while the EU Withdrawal Bill 2017–2019 has as its objective the shepherding through of the United Kingdom in its departure from the EU. The argument is made that these events are liminal moments in European legal and human history; moreover, lessons from history are used to identify the specific implications for human health research as an area of human activity that will be profoundly impacted by the Brexit process. This analysis also provides a means to reflect on the broader implications of what a disruptive process such as Brexit means for law generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PRCBC was a legal challenge to the fees imposed on the citizenship application of a child born in, and who has never left, the UK. The Home Secretary imposed legal fees which were well in excess of the costs associated with the citizenship application. In return, this effectively prevented the applicant, and many others alike, from obtaining British citizenship. Many commentators expected the Supreme Court to strike down the fees and reinforce the importance of citizenship and the rule of law. Instead, the court unanimously upheld the legality of the high fees and rooted their conclusion in ordinary rules of statutory interpretation. To some, PRCBC represents a U-turn from the Court's decision in UNISON, which struck down high fees required by employment tribunal applications for failing a reasonable affordability test. Is PRCBC representative of a shift in the highest court to a less interventionist judicial philosophy? This paper examines whether the Supreme Court's decision in PRCBC can convincingly be reconciled with UNISON by considering the nature of constitutional rights, as well as the relationship between primary and delegated legislation. This paper reveals the flaws in some commentators' criticism of PRCBC and argues that the two cases are compatible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on environmental law in Wales. The Government of Wales Act 1998 created an elected Assembly for the people of Wales as part of a wider program of devolution in Great Britain. However, unlike the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Northern Ireland, which have primary law-making powers, the National Assembly for Wales, the Assembly, has limited legislative competence. The Assembly may only exercise powers delegated to it under statutes created by the Great Britain parliament. Delegated legislation may provide the potential for innovative action, but it is usually associated with the almost mechanical process of implementing the detail of government policy. Nevertheless, environmental law is 'an area that is heavily regulatory in nature and in which governments of different political complexions have expressed a preference for forms of quasi-legislation.' Hence, it is an area that should provide many opportunities for the Assembly to take legislative action. However, the development of a distinctive agenda for environmental protection in Wales is also frustrated by the nature of the environmental problems, which perpetuate close ties with England.

Presents a transcript of the Statute Law Society Annual Lecture delivered by the Clerk of the Great Britain House of Lords Delegated Powers and Deregulation Committee in May 2000. Aims and authority of the Committee; Inadequacy of the scrutiny arrangements for secondary legislation in the Commons; Increase in the quality of secondary legislation.

The way in which political parties use state resources indirectly (e.g., parliamentary expenses) receives substantial attention in public debate, particularly when surrounded by perceptions of misuse. However, scholarly studies of resources indirectly available to parties through their functions in the state, how they are used and regulated, are rare. This article presents an analytical framework that identifies and categorizes the range of indirect resources linked to parties' institutional roles. It locates these resources within a four-fold matrix of regulation, distinguishing regimes that vary in their detail and whether compliance is externally monitored. Undertaking comparative case studies of parliamentary resource use in the United Kingdom and Australia, we argue that the blurring of party-political and parliamentary roles can impede the effectiveness of regulatory regimes that democracies adopt, regardless of detail and external enforcement. These findings have important implications for regulatory reforms that seek to constrain parties' behavior to depoliticize democratic governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the significance and scope of regulations in the new Bar Standards Board (BSB) Handbook for England and Wales. It discusses the substantive changes to the rules and regultion including the expansion of regulation of unregistered barristers, the scope for disqualification of employees of barristers within chambers and the litigation rights for self-employed barristers.

Before the enactment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 1990, receivership in Nigeria was governed by case law, informal rules (of practice) and the Companies Decree 1968. Nigerian judges were heavily influenced by British case law, precedents were British and the Nigerian Companies Decree was a transplant of the British Companies Act 1948. Against this background, the Supreme Court of Nigeria delivered the Intercontractors decisions in 1988, which subsequently governed the nature, status and powers of Nigerian receivers. In 1990, CAMA introduced a more robust receivership regime which prescribed the nature, status and powers of the receiver, reversing some of the Intercontractors principles. However, the courts, particularly the Supreme Court, failed to enforce the relevant provisions of CAMA or to examine the applicability of the Intercontractors principles that they conscientiously enforced. This article examines the validity of the Intercontractors principles and their continued relevance under CAMA 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses several notifications to the European Commission (EC) under Directive 98/34/EC. It says that a decree in Finland regulates responsibility of packaging makers for separate collection, re-use, and recovery of discarded packaging. It adds that a regulation in Norway prohibits marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children. Moreover, a draft regulation in Great Britain replaces an amended formula to compute glass packaging waste that should be recycled by remelt.

Copyright of Collected Papers of Zagreb Law Faculty / Zbornik Pravnog Fakulteta u Zagrebu is the property of Sveuciliste u Zagrebu, Pravni Fakultet and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article provides an overview of the origins, effect and legacy of the Risk Regulation Advisory Council (RRAC). It states that RRAC was formed in 2008 under the Labour government in Great Britain focusing on the politics of risk to produce better regulations. It discusses RRAC's approach to managing risks which are considered innovative and radical. It is the author's view that RRAC failed to understand that risk regulation is about leadership and politicians.

The current political climate in the UK is arguably more conducive to associationalism than previous regimes. This paper engages with Paul Hirst's work, focusing in particular on the legal and regulatory conditions that would need to be in place to support a transition towards associative democracy. The social economy is the obvious vehicle for associational reform. However, an analysis of the legal and regulatory forms associated with the social economy in the UK indicates that the current framework will not easily facilitate transition. The analysis opens up challenging questions for how to regulate the democratic element of associative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers news briefs related to legislation of Great Britain. Water Industry Regulations of Great Britain for the year 2011 has came into force to implement the mass transfer of private commercial and the domestic sewers. Aviation industry of Great Britain will get allowances by European Commission.

This paper describes the potential role of third-sector rivers trusts charities in co-delivery of the EU water framework directive. It uses as a case study the Tyne Rivers Trust in northeast England. The aim of the paper is to critically evaluate the capacity of the third sector to help deliver the vital public engagement, evidence-based strategies and practical measures required by the directive within a 'big society' political context. The trust has several avenues of work, which heavily depend on stakeholder participation, from education, through debates on problem issues concerning the river to active voluntary work on measures to relieve 'pressures' identified for local waterbodies under the directive. The trust also undertakes, in partnership with the Environment Agency, riparian works on aggravated sources of siltation -- an identified threat to the biodiversity of the River Tyne. The paper ends with an assessment of the successes and failures of the organisation in its stakeholder relationships: 'engagement' is identified as a vital element of the niche occupied by rivers trusts. It is seen as vital for the trust to maintain and adapt its successful 'localism' model during a period of rapidly growing influence on river management issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill resulted in a temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling and implementation of new regulation in the USA. Consequential organic changes to UK regulations are perhaps unlikely but more importance on the interpretation of existing regulations through continued and improved technical guidance is evident combined with greater enforcement of existing regulations. There is perhaps unlikely to be a fundamental change to the "no gain, no loss" principle of operatorship, but rather, increased scrutiny of contractual allocation of risk and rising insurance premia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas major incident planning is very well established within National Health Service (NHS) organisations in the UK, business continuity management (BCM) planning, in many cases, is a relatively new activity; however, a combination of factors including the emergence of H1N1 influenza, has led to growing interest in the subject. This paper draws on both the personal experience of the authors and published research in relevant fields to make a number of specific recommendations about the effective implementation of BCM within NHS organisations. These include the need to define the BCM project properly; conduct a thorough business impact analysis considering 'back office' as well as clinical activities; define suitable command and control arrangements with clear delegated authority; and support plan development with appropriate training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the funding of supported housing schemes. These are schemes that house vulnerable people with special needs in the community. The paper looks at why the future of these schemes has been threatened by a series of legal decisions interpreting the housing benefit regulations.The paper analyses the relevant regulations and looks at how they apply to supported housing schemes. It then sifts through the details of the case law and concludes by looking at the lessons that may be learned in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulators in a number of countries are increasingly developing “risk-based” strategies to manage their resources, and their reputations as “risk-based regulators” have become much lauded by regulatory reformers. This widespread endorsement of risk-based regulation, together with the experience of regulatory failure, prompts us to consider how risk-based regulators can attune the logics of risk analyses to the complex problems and the dynamics of regulation in practice. We argue, first, that regulators have to regulate in a way that is responsive to five elements: (1) regulated firms' behavior, attitude, and culture; (2) regulation's institutional environments; (3) interactions of regulatory controls; (4) regulatory performance; and (5) change. Secondly, we argue that the challenges of regulation to which regulators have to respond vary across the different regulatory tasks of detection, response development, enforcement, assessment, and modification. Using the “really responsive” framework, we highlight some of the strengths and limitations of using risk-based regulation to manage risk and uncertainty within the constraints that flow from practical circumstances and, indeed, from the framework of risk-based regulation itself. The need for a revised, more nuanced conception of risk-based regulation is stressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is on the deterrence of 'hard core' cartels through appropriate sanctions. The UK has the toughest provisions in the EU, with a dual system of administrative regulation and fines directed at firms and penalties, including criminal proceedings, targeted at the individuals involved. The paper considers experiences since the introduction of personal criminal sanctions for the UK's 'cartel offence' under the Enterprise Act 2002. Although an enforcement lag was to be expected, the threat of criminal sanctions against individuals to date has seemed more apparent than real. Problems in applying the policy are identified through an assessment in terms of the necessary prerequisites for the successful criminalisation of antitrust offences proposed by Wils (2005) and ongoing developments in the UK are discussed. The findings shed some light on the difficulties of introducing effective criminal sanctions on individual cartel behaviour at Member State level and suggest more general consideration be given to non criminal director disqualifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a comparative evaluation of the ultra vires and common law theories of judicial review in Great Britain. It found that the region's common law theory is preferred because of its effectiveness in furthering the goal of upholding the rule of law, which carries popular support in the region and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). It examined that common law integrates with the rule of law through virtuous cycles of reinforcing co-developments as it becomes coextensive with the constitution. It investigated that the methodology of common law offers improvements through the principle of precedent to balance between the need for certainty and adaptability to unexpected circumstances.

This article considers some of the fundamental issues arising out of the Davies Review of Issuer Liability. That Review recommended only a limited role for private enforcement of the continuing disclosure obligations imposed upon issuers. The article considers whether such a limited role can be justified, from both a compensation and a deterrence standpoint. It concludes that it can, provided there is a sound system of public enforcement of those obligations in place. Whether the recent changes in the role of the Financial Services Authority will provide an appropriate level of public enforcement is not yet clear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses regulatory innovation. It considers, in particular, how a regulatory environmental agency has been encouraged to innovate in the area of biopesticides. The literature on regulatory innovation is reviewed, the discussion situated within Moran's theory of the regulatory state. It considers to what extent innovation has occurred within the agency, looking at its proactive stance, and how unusually for a regulatory body it has negotiated new policy spaces in which to operate. The article looks at the contextual drivers and also the exogenous and endogenous pressures behind the innovation. It shows how the executive has intervened in order to promote more use of biopesticides and how pressure is also being exerted within the regulatory authority. By using the existing literature and empirical evidence a framework is outlined for explaining the likelihood of regulatory innovation occurring in regulatory agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers updates on banking laws in Great Britain. Accordingly, banks have been granted leave to appeal on the question whether an assessment of the fairness of the charges imposed by the relevant terms, which was not allowed by regulation of the 1999 Regulations. It is noted that the relevant charges had never been bargained for any real sense chosen of the customer and that the assessment of the fairness of the relevant charges was not excluded by the 1999 Regulations. Moreover, the Article 24 of the Brussels Regulation states that a court of a Member State before which a defendant enters an appearance shall have jurisdiction.

The use of neuroleptic drugs to mediate the behaviour of people with dementia living in care homes can lead to them being deprived of their liberty. Whilst regulation has been successful in reducing neuroleptic prescribing in the USA, policy guidance has been unsuccessful in reducing the use of these drugs in the UK. Yet the Mental capacity act 2005 aimed to protect the liberty of people lacking capacity and provided safeguards to ensure that they are not inappropriately deprived of their liberty in institutions. This article highlights the potential for using this law to identify when neuroleptic prescribing in care homes would deprive people with dementia of their liberty and, in turn, to act as a check on prescribing levels. However, the extent to which the Act can promote and protect the right to liberty of people with dementia is constrained by a lack of access to social rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article outlines the key reasons why the ombudsman should not be granted powers of legal enforcement in Great Britain. It discusses the immediate origins of the petition derived from a report of the Local Government Ombudsmen (LGO), which identified several instances of maladministration on the part of Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council (Trafford MBC). It highlights the issue raised in the dispute between Trafford MBC and the family of Carly Wright centers on the appropriateness of the care that was offered by the local authority. Moreover, the LGO found maladministration on the grounds that Trafford MBC failed to use the transition period appropriately to find a permanent placement for Carly.

The applicable law to a contract in the absence of the parties' choice is governed by Article 4 of the Rome Convention, which has been implemented in the UK by the Contracts (Applicable Law) Act 1990. This rule adopts the ‘closest connection principle’ as a basic principle to decide the applicable law, but also introduces specific presumptions to simplify the process. The current rule has been criticised for its uncertainty. As a result, a substantive change has been provided in the Rome I Regulation, which aims to modernise the current choice of law rules in contractual obligations and convert the Rome Convention into a Council Regulation. The new Article 4 aims to enhance certainty and to overcome the difficulties of the current rules of the Rome Convention. However, a close scrutiny of the new Article 4 shows that it does not properly achieve its aim. The article aims to critically analyse Article 4 of the Rome I Regulation and to provide suggestions for its interpretation and understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We test two alternative perspectives on the start-up size and subsequent growth of new firms in a heavily regulated (HR) economy and a lightly regulated (LR) economy. The first argues that, in an HR economy, there will be fewer new firms, and those that do start will be larger than those in an LR economy, but they will grow more slowly. A second perspective is that regulation does not influence the scale of entrepreneurship - merely its distribution between that which is registered and that which is not registered. Using parallel datasets for HR Spain and LR Britain we find some support for both perspectives. Specifically we find that registered new firms in Britain do start smaller than in Spain and do grow faster. However, when both registered and unregistered firms are included, these differences disappear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the consequences of modernisation and regulatory processes for the everyday lives of doctors working the UK National Health Service. We do this by reporting on interview data generated as part of a qualitative investigation into the working lives of 47 doctors. The analysis of the empirical findings is informed by two literatures: that which has sought to theorise the contemporary thrust of regulation and audit and that which has developed a sociology of embodiment. Doctors’ views are presented in relation to four areas of work which have – in the loosest sense of the word – been subject to regulation. Drawing on work from the sociology of embodiment we argue that changes in the institutional and cultural context of medical work could be altering both the ‘field’ and the ‘habitus’– to use Bourdieu's terms – of medicine, with a consequence that medical knowledge is becoming less embodied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note examines the decision of the House of Lords in Lonsdale (t/a Lonsdale Agencies) v Howard & Hallam Limited 1 where the House of Lords were asked to rule on the correct method to be applied when calculating the compensation of commercial agents 2 under Regulation 17 of The Commercial Agents (Council Directive) Regulations 1993 3 (the Regulations). This ruling settles this aspect of the law in England and Wales after almost fifteen years of legal and commercial uncertainty on the matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Xenotransplantation - the transfer of living tissue between species - has long been heralded as a potential solution to the severe organ shortage crisis experienced by the United Kingdom and other ‘developed’ nations. However, the significant risks which accompany this biotechnology led the United Kingdom to adopt a cautious approach to its regulation, with the establishment of a non-departmental public body - UKXIRA - to oversee the development of this technology on a national basis. In December 2006 UKXIRA was quietly disbanded and replaced with revised guidance, which entrusts the regulation of xenotransplantation largely to research ethics committees. In this article we seek to problematize this new regulatory framework, arguing that specialist expertise and national oversight are necessary components of an adequate regulatory framework for a biotechnology which poses new orders of risk, challenges the adequacy of traditional understandings of autonomy and consent, and raises significant animal welfare concerns. We argue for a more considered and holistic approach, based on adequate consultation, to regulating biotechnological developments in the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the proceedings covered in the bulletin of the Parliament's Education Committee in Great Britain in the second half of 2005-2006. The committee has completed their work on the Pupil Motivation and Early Years Inquiries meeting during the period. They have considered subordinate legislation encompassing Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland Rules 2006, Children Regulations and draft Joint Inspections Amendment Regulations. The committee has commented on petitions concerning the closure of special schools and school buses.

The “comply or explain” principle adopted by the UK’s Combined Code on Corporate Governance has now been in operation for 12 years. In this paper we focus on two aspects of this regime. The first is the nature of the explanations that have been given by companies with an established record of non-compliance (“serial non-compliers”) and the role of the market in permitting deviations from the Combined Code. In particular, we consider the significance of share price performance as a factor that is relevant in justifying non-compliance and the extent to which investors appear to rely on this indicator rather than engage in the more difficult task of judging the relative merits of the Code provisions against alternatives. Our approach differs from much of the research linking corporate governance with financial performance in that it focuses on the potential influence of financial performance (as measured by share price) on governance structure rather than vice versa. Our study of FTSE 100 serial non-compliers suggests that there is a prima facie link between share price performance and investors’ tolerance of non-compliance with the Combined Code. The second issue we examine is the link between the principle of “comply and explain” and the self-regulatory status of the Code. We conclude that the benefits of flexibility generally associated with the self-regulatory status of the Code are overstated and that the Code could be integrated into mainstream company law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine how UK listed companies set executive pay, reviewing the implications of following best practice in corporate governance and examining how this can conflict with what shareholders and other stakeholders might perceive as good behavior. We do this by considering current governance regulation in the light of interviews with protagonists in the debate, setting out the dilemmas faced by remuneration setters, and showing how the processes they follow can lead to ethical conflicts. Current 'best' practice governing executive pay includes the use of market benchmarks to determine salary and bonus levels, significant levels of performance-related pay, the desire for executives to hold equity in their companies, the disclosure of total shareholder return compared to an index, and a perceived need for conformity, in order to grant legitimacy to policies. Whilst each of these may in some circumstances lead to good practice, each has the potential to cause dysfunctional behavior in executives. Overall, we conclude that although best practice might drive good executive behavior that coincides with the company's and key stakeholders' objectives, there are many reasons why it should not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following is a list of the main statutory instruments which concern the Education Service. The instruments are listed in numerical order, with a brief explanation of the main contents of each instrument. The Editors gratefully acknowledge Crown copyright. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been mounting concern about the increasing level of regulation in the UK economy over the last decade or more. Regulation has significant costs and is difficult to repeal. The government has set up various bodies to examine deregulation and better regulation. This article and the other articles in this issue look at those approaches and ask whether the state should be involved to a lesser degree in regulation. In many areas, it may be appropriate for the state to withdraw altogether, either because the private sector can spontaneously develop better regulation than the state can or because the unintended costs of state regulation are so great. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sets out the work of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in developing a level of regulation beyond initial registration to reflect the advanced levels of practice at which many nurses now work. It also explores other key challenges for the Council and for nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing criticism has accompanied the rising numbers of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) imposed. In this short paper we review some of our own recent research findings in conjunction with other recent commentaries to question whether the declared intentions behind the introduction of the ASBO are being achieved in practice. We argue that there are a number of fundamental problems with ASBO enforcement. We conclude by urging for the resurrection of a critical and reflective practice in community safety policy development and implementation and for a recognition that there are more just and effective alternatives to our current, seemingly 'enforcement led', interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2004, the Government published a white paper on‘The Future of Rail’, which outlined its planned third attempt to reform the railways. This article reviews the new blueprint for rail, in the context of the performance of the industry and its regulatory bodies. The changes proposed are analysed in terms of their likely effects on the infrastructure authority and the train companies. The author concludes that there are major problems with the white paper as key details are omitted, and the proposed changes are heavily reliant on private companies which have performed poorly. The Government has missed the opportunity to renationalize the infrastructure authority, a move which would reduce borrowing costs and bring direct control over infrastructure costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transposition of the EU information and consultation Directive means that the UK now has, for the first time, a general statutory framework giving employees the right to insist on being informed and consulted by their employers on a range of key business, employment and restructuring issues. This article assesses the significance of the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 in the light of the UK’s previous approaches to the regulation of employee consultation and in terms of potential patterns of implementation. A key aspect of the government’s legislative strategy has been to maximise employers’ flexibility of response to the Regulations, enabling the negotiation of organisation-specific agreements and, controversially, providing scope for reliance on direct rather than representative-based forms of information and consultation. The article examines the options open to employers, employees and trade unions under the Regulations and their possible take-up, drawing on the experience of analogous UK legislation, including that on European Works Councils and trade union recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on regulations related to decommissioning of nuclear power reactors in Great Britain. The regulation of nuclear safety is the responsibility of HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate which is part of the Health and Safety Executive's Nuclear Safety Directorate. The goal-setting licensing regime attaches conditions to the site licence, which essentially means the licensee is required to set up proportionate arrangements to ensure nuclear safety. Regarding staff changes, Licence Condition 36 requires the licensee to have adequate arrangements to control any change to its organizational structure, which may affect safety.

Copyright of Cuadernos de Trabajo Social is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)