Fieldfisher

This Practice Note covers two recent legislative developments in the EU’s digital market, Regulation (EU) 2022/868, the Data Governance Act (the DGA) and Regulation (EU) 2023/2854 the Data Act (the DA). These two acts are the main deliverables of the European Strategy for Data, presented by the European Commission in February 2020. The European Strategy for Data, is part of the European Commission’s broader action plan to ensure Europe’s digital sovereignty by 2030, and is complementary to the European strategy on artificial intelligence.

This Practice Note contains guidance regarding Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on general product safety also known as the EU General Product Safety Regulation (EU GPSR). The EU GPSR requires economic operators to place on the market only products that are safe.

This archived Practice Note looks at some of the key decisions made by the Pensions Ombudsman and courts up to 2017 in relation to the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, remedial powers and certain procedural matters, as well as the standards required for ill-health retirement decisions. It is not maintained and is for background information only.

This Practice Note considers previous convictions, including what is meant by a spent conviction, when convictions will not become spent, rehabilitation periods and the categorisation of other means of disposal including absolute discharges, conditional cautions and fixed penalty notices etc, for criminal records purposes. It also considers, for organisations, disposals such as non prosecution or deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs). In addition, it explains how previous convictions or cautions (an offender’s criminal record) might impact upon new criminal investigations (including via searches using the Police National Computer (PNC)) and decisions to prosecute. This includes decisions to offer DPAs where corporate recidivism is concerned, requirements to disclose previous convictions in criminal or quasi criminal matters, for example when complying with a duty of candour to the court, bail applications, good and bad character assessments and sentencing. It also considers proof of previous convictions as an element of the offence.

This Practice Note looks at the requirements and recommendations of the Pensions Regulator in relation to public sector pension schemes, which until 2014 had largely been outside the Regulator's scope. It considers the public sector schemes under the Regulator’s remit and the Regulator’s requirements in relation to management structure, knowledge and understanding, conflicts of interest, risk management structure, records and administration, dispute resolution, and reporting.

This Practice Note looks at the extent to which trustees can set aside documents which they have previously entered into on the grounds of mistake. Among other things, this Practice Note looks at the impact of Hastings-Bass v Inland Revenue Commissioners, Kerr v British Leyland, Sieff v Fox, Stannard v Fisons, Smithson v Hamilton, Gibbon v Mitchell and Pitt v Holt.