• tribunals hearing an unfair dismissal claim will be unable to take into account discussions between an employer and an employee or an offer made prior to the termination of employment with the aim of ending the contract on agreed terms .
In addition , compromise agreements will be renamed ‘ settlement agreements ’ in order to encourage parties to settle employment disputes . A statutory code of practice will also be introduced , setting out the principles for using settlement agreements , which will include model letters , a model agreement and supporting guidance . This last change is probably the most relevant to our readers : it will finally allow employers to suggest a negotiated settlement and exit to an employee without fear that any discussions will result in the employee claiming that they were constructively dismissed simply because the offer to end the contract on mutually agreeable terms was discussed .
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FCA - Proactive Regulatory Reviews - Business Risk by Bruce Fayle
With regard to the FSA / FCA Business Risk Awareness Programme and the workshops and reviews which have been carried out during 2012 and early in 2013 in the West of England , South West of England , the West Midlands and Scotland & Northern Ireland we understand that the FCA has now commenced Proactive Online Regulatory Reviews aimed at firms not undergoing a face to face or telephone based review .
Their online tool will gather information directly from firms through an online self-assessment , automatically analyse the information and then provide immediate feedback via email .
The FCA has commenced these reviews with firms based in Scotland and Northern Ireland and they have started to make contact with details of how to complete the online review .
Firms based within the North West of England , South West of England and the West Midlands regions that have not had any type of proactive regulatory review thus far will be assessed via the online system and it is expected the FCA will contact firms over the next few months to provide more specific information in relation to the online review .
The FCA are currently running Business Risk Awareness Workshops in the South Central area and firms in other parts of the UK will be dealt with in line with the FCA ’ s regional approach . We will provide more details as and when we receive them .
We understand that once contacted and informed that they are part of the online programme , firms will have 7 to 10 days to complete the online assessment . Please click this link for an indication of the FCA ’ s current questions and answers document .
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