The first known case of a vexatious litigant in employment tribunal cases was heard in 2000. A vexatious litigant is someone who brings hopeless cases, subjecting defendants to inconvenience out of all proportion to any possible gain to the claimant. The option to declare a person a vexatious litigant has been available to the courts...Read More

An employer can be liable for actions committed by an employee in the course of his employment, even if the employee was acting improperly. A recent case helps clarify what is in the course of employment. A female prison officer received an unexpected visit from a male colleague at her home one evening. During this...Read More

From 14 August 2000, new laws on trade union rights are extended to activities in UK territorial waters in the Continental Shelf. The rights relate to recognition of trade unions, protection for some types of industrial action, and requirements on ballots. The Employment Relations (Offshore Employment) Order SI 2000 No 1828 [2000]Read More

Over one million people in the UK cannot open a jar of jam because of a disability, it was stated in 2000. This is quoted as an example of poor design which does not properly consider the needs of disabled people. The Centre for Accessability has been established to promote design to make products accessible...Read More

Finance Act 2000 received Royal Assent on 28 July 2000, before Parliament was adjourned for summer. The Act implements most of this year’s Budget’s provisions. This is the longest Finance Act yet, exceeding previous long Acts by over 100 pages. It comprises 157 sections and 40 Schedules over 613 pages. It is the size of...Read More

Guidelines have been produced on what constitutes research and development for tax purposes. Broadly, full tax relief is available for such expenditure for small and medium-sized companies, provided that the amount spent is at least £25,000 (or pro rata for accounting periods of less than 12 months). The definition of research and development follows accounting...Read More

Regulations on welfare counselling have been issued as statutory instrument SI 2000 No 2080. These regulations allow an employer to provide welfare counselling and similar benefits to an employee without its being regarded as a taxable benefit. The regulations apply from 21 August 2000. Welfare counselling includes all forms of assistance provided to employees to...Read More

Regulations have been introduced in 2000 to remove the upper limit for payroll giving, and to pay the 10% supplement to donations. Before the current tax year, the annual limit was £1,200 a year. This has now been removed. Payroll giving allows an employee to have a charitable donation deducted from his gross pay which,...Read More

Some further amendments have been made to tax law as a consequence of the changes in the taxation of international companies. The changes are: the foreign exchange rules which allow some foreign currency transactions to be offset without translation to sterling are amended so that all references to trade or part of a trade become...Read More

Small companies seeking finance under the corporate venturing scheme can now obtain advance clearance that an issue of shares will meet the conditions of the scheme. Details are contained in two new statements of practice, SP1/00 and SP2/00 of 2000. Corporate venturing was introduced in the last Budget with effect from 1 April 2000. Details...Read More