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A scaffolding business has been fined for health and safety breaches after a worker fell more than 10 metres through a roof.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted Mark Wilson, trading as MWS Scaffolding Services, in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, after uncovering breaches of health and safety law on a site in Waltham Forest, north east London.

Mr Wilson was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,566.80 at City of London Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

Administrators at off-license group First Quench have announced they're closing 381 of the company's stores and cutting 2,000 jobs after negotiations to find a new buyer collapsed.  First Quench owns a number of well-known high street chains, including Threshers, Wine Rack, Haddows, Victoria Wine and Bottoms Up.

However, Richard Fleming,of administrators KPMG, is still hopeful First Quench can shift "a significant number" of its remaining stores as "going concerns."  The Guardian reports EFB Retail may be one of the interested parties.  Supermarket chains may also be interested in cherry-picking sites.

"Unfortunately there was not sufficient interest in the 381 stores as part of the going concern sale, so we have no option but to close them," Fleming said.

Redundancy rights

If you've been made redundant recently, or you're worried about being made redundant, you should know you have a number of legal rights, including:

New proposals to protect communities by making the streets safer, shutting down criminal markets and ensuring justice for victims of crime were revealed last week in the Crime and Security Bill.

The new Bill includes the following proposed measures:

The Corporation Tax Bill and the Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Bill have been published.  These Bills are the sixth and seventh produced by the Tax Law Rewrite project, which has rewritten a big chunk of UK tax law in recent years to make it clearer and easier to use. 

The Corporation Tax Bill (the second of two dealing with corporation tax) substantially completes the rewrite of the corporation tax code.  It includes provisions about losses and gifts to charities, various reliefs such as group relief, distributions, particular types of companies and activities, avoidance, and definitions.

The Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Bill includes provisions about double taxation relief, transfer pricing, advance pricing agreements and tax arbitrage.  It also relocates and where appropriate rewrites some provisions which would otherwise have been left unhelpfully in the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 or one of the Finance Acts.

A new Energy Bill was introduced in Parliament last week. 

The Bill has been designed with two objectives in mind: (1) protect vulnerable households; (2) develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

(1) Protect vulnerable households

The Bill contains the following measures to protect vulnerable households:

(a) Mandatory social price support (including electricity bill rebates)

Where a DIY divorce is unavailable, a pursuer should file an application for an ordinary divorce.

Before you file...

(1) Grounds for divorce

As a first step, read Divorce 101: Grounds For Divorce - Scotland (#6).

(2) Should I hire a solicitor?

Yes, you are strongly advised to retain a solicitor for an ordinary divorce. 

Always ask for an estimate of costs and the hourly charging rate when you first see a solicitor, but be prepared for this estimate to change as your case goes on. 

You should also ask for an estimate of 'outlays' - costs that the solicitor will have to pay out on your behalf, such as court fees, advocate fees, and property valuations.

(3) What about legal aid?

Around three quarters of Scottish adults now qualify for legal aid.  If your income, after paying essential expenses such as your mortgage, tax and childcare, is £25,000 or less, you may qualify.  Visit the Scottish Legal Aid Board website for more information.

(4) Court costs

If you are on a low income, you should complete a fee exemption form and request a waiver of court costs.  For more information, speak to your local Citizens Advice Bureau and visit the Scottish courts website.

There are two ways to obtain a divorce in Scotland: 

1. DIY divorce (a.k.a. simplified divorce); or
   
   
2. Ordinary divorce. 

In this blog, we'll take a look at DIY divorce. 

[To read about ordinary divorce, read Divorce 101: Ordinary Divorce Application (#44).]

A tough new compulsory licensing scheme designed to rid England, Wales and Northern Ireland of rogue wheel clampers, has been set out in the Crime and Security Bill.

Proposals within the Bill will make it mandatory for all wheel clamping businesses to be licensed under the terms of a strict code of conduct.  The code will include a cap on fines, time limits on towing cars unreasonably quickly after being clamped and set out clear instructions for putting up signs warning drivers that clamping takes place.

Ministers are also looking to introduce an independent appeals process for motorists who feel unfairly penalised by firms and their employees.

Any company which breaches the terms of their licence could lose their right to practise and face up to five years in prison or a substantial fine.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said this week that serious management failings led to the death of a young boy, who drowned in a swimming pool at a Dundee leisure centre.

The seven year-old, Luke Hutton, died in September 2007 at the Olympia Leisure Complex, Dundee.  At the end of a public swimming session, another child raised the alarm that Luke was missing and his body was then found in a covered wave pool following a 40-minute search.

At Dundee Sheriff Court on Tuesday, the organisation Dundee Leisure of 30 and 34 Reform Street, Dundee, was fined £40,000 having pleaded guilty to charges under Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

[Continued from New Measures To Tackle Anti-Social Behaviour: Part 2]

Councils and the police now have more powers and tools to deal with anti-social behaviour than ever before.  These include:

The Government has also announced new measures to tackle anti-social behaviour for people living in social housing.  This includes:

• ensuring tenants are supported to challenge landlords, councils and the police where they are failing or not acting quickly enough;
  
  
• a new housing anti-social behaviour action squad to work with landlords on the ground to spread and embed good practice;
  
  
• new guidance for social landlords to provide them with a detailed understanding of how to use their powers effectively; &
  
  
• a revised, Respect Standard for Housing Management, on tackling anti-social behaviour, which will be become binding on social landlords for the first time.

Where necessary industry regulator Tenant Services Authority will be able to use new enforcement powers to ensure that tenants get a good service.  These can include issuing enforcement notices or even transferring the management of properties to another provider.  In addition, housing associations can face fines or be forced to pay compensation to their tenants.

The Government announced millions of people across the country will get extra help to tackle anti-social behaviour this week.

New measures to tackle anti-social behaviour include:

• letting local residents know the rights and how to report anti-social behaviour through targeted leaflets, regional events and information for local media;
  
  
• extra training for 10,000 frontline staff such as anti-social behaviour co-ordinators, police and neighbourhood wardens;
  
  
• extra funding for local work to tackle anti-social behaviour such as environmental clean up campaigns, supporting community led projects to engage young people and creating more attractive public spaces; &
  
  
• training to help residents and community champions challenge police and councils and shape the approach to tackling anti-social behaviour.

This drive, which is being funded by a £10 million package, will target 130 local councils.

Proposals to further open up family courts to the media have been announced as part of new legislation put before Parliament this week.

Clauses in the Children, Schools and Families Bill build on changes announced in April that allowed the media to attend most family proceedings for the first time.  The legislation aims to balance the need to make family courts open and accountable against the importance of protecting the welfare of children and families involved in family proceedings.

In recognition of the significance of these reforms in a sensitive area, the changes will be introduced in phases to assess their impact.

There was another twist in Jordan Wimmer's £4 million constructive dismissal case against Nomos Capital founder Mark Lowe this week, as the defendant took the stand.  Lowe admitted to sending sexually explicit emails to female employees and calling Wimmer a "dumb blonde" and "decorative"; he also said he had a "marked preference" for female sales staff, which he justified as "pure commercial sense."  Wimmer also produced one email in which Lowe asked her whether an internship candidate was "cute" or "blonde."

But Lowe rejected Wimmer's claims that he'd hired escorts, who accompanied him to business meetings, and a hitman to kill her.  He also denied accusations that he made sexual advances towards Wimmer, saying he always treated her "in a gentlemanly way."

1. Stronger financial regulation and corporate governance

• Creates a new Council for Financial Stability, chaired by the Chancellor and including the Chair of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Governor of the Bank of England, to focus on managing systemic risk and protecting financial stability, both in the UK and internationally.
  
  
• Establishes a new financial stability objective for the FSA, enabling it to place greater emphasis on monitoring, assessing and mitigating macro-prudential risks in its supervisory and regulatory approach.
  
  
• Hands enhanced power to the FSA by:

- extending the Authority's rule-making powers to accomplish any of its objectives (not just consumer protection as at present);

- extending its information-gathering powers to non-regulated firms (including hedge funds), where information is relevant to financial stability;

- strengthening its powers to take action where firms and individuals are guilty of misconduct;

- allowing it to restrict short selling and to require disclosure of short selling.

• Includes the following provisions on remuneration:

- FSA handed task of coming up with binding rules to implement the G20 pay agreement;

- Hands FSA power to void any contract that contravenes said rules and to recover any payments made under contracts that breach rules;

- Ends multi-year guaranteed bonuses, or large bonuses paid out as a cash lump sum at year-end, and all bonuses subject to clawback.