Procurement: The Public Contracts Regulations 2015
Employment: Variation clauses; Indirect age discrimination; Revised Acas Code; Advocate General on ‘one establishment’
Governance: Student complaints – public interest cases
IT/IP: No copyright term reduction on 2039 rule works
FAQ: Procurement: Can we provide a reference for a supplier? Read Full Article…
Further to a consultation launched by the Intellectual Property Office in October 2014, the government has decided not to take action to reduce the term of copyright in unpublished works that currently remain protected until the year 2039. According to its response to the consultation, the government remains strongly of the view that steps need to be undertaken to facilitate the use of historically and culturally important 2039 works, and intends to seek further views from interested parties in the near future.
In December 2014, the Crown Commercial Service published a procurement policy note entitled ‘Procurement Policy Note 11/14: references and public procurement’ (PPN 11/14). The note sets out the policy on this matter across the UK, and explains the basis on which contracting authorities can provide references for suppliers.
The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) has published two further sets of ‘public interest’ cases illustrating issues that commonly arise in the process of handling student complaints.
On 5 February 2015, the Advocate General’s opinion on ‘the Woolworths case’ was published. It was combined with two other cases, one from Northern Ireland and one from Spain. All three cases required clarification of the meaning of ‘establishment’ in Directive 98/59/EC (‘the Directive’) which relates to collective redundancies. The opinion of the Advocate General is not binding on the ECJ and its ruling will not be published until later in the year.