Osborne Clarke's best legal reads of the week: July 13 - 17

What are the top legal reads of the week from around the web written by Osborne Clarke’s people? Which posts have been shared the most via social media?

Here’s this week’s best reads…

• Smart cities in Europe – Financing the commercialisation of smart city technology

This week we released the first of a series of white papers on smart cities. The report looks at the structure, participants and funding models of existing smart city demonstration projects. It analyses why these were successful, discusses why more demonstration projects are not being launched and provides insights on what might be done to encourage more. Download the report via our smart cities website here. 

• What’s in the Government’s consultation on mandatory gender pay gap reporting? 

The Government has issued its much anticipated consultation “Closing the Gender Pay Gap” (here) which will help shape the new statutory requirement, for private and voluntary sector employers with 250 or more employees, to disclose any gender pay gap in their organisation. The consultation also includes some broader questions on the important issue of gender pay equality, recognising that gender pay differences will not be magically resolved by a new disclosure regime. Read about the key points and why the Government is consulting here. 

• Private equity and venture capital update – July 2015 

Read the latest edition of Osborne Clarke’s quarterly private equity and venture capital update here. 

• What has the Government said this week in its announcement on the Trade Union Bill? 

The Government has this week announced the introduction of its Trade Union Bill (see here). This announcement follows swiftly on from the recent strike by four unions in a dispute about the launch of a new night service which led to the London Underground being shut down for more than 24 hours last week and more strikes expected in August. Read all about the announcement here. 

• Pay on the way in, not on the way out? The government consults on possible ‘radical changes’ to pensions tax relief 

In our recent blog about the budget, we mentioned the Government’s consultation on pensions tax relief. The consultation notes factors influencing pension provision, for example increases in life expectancy and the related move away from DB and towards DC. It also notes all the changes the Government has made to encourage people to save for their retirement and provide a transparent and secure state pension. Read the key points from the consultation here. 

• French tax credit to be extended to PEGI 18+ video games 

The French government has just published secondary legislation allowing developers of 18+ video games to benefit, under some conditions, from the French tax credit system to favour the creation of video games. Read the full blog post here. 

• Marketinglaw website re-launch

This week, we re-launched our dedicated website on marketing and advertising law. For 15 years, this has been our main advertising and marketing law blog hub. The site carries articles and comment on major changes, cases and legal developments taking place in the marketing and advertising world, with regular updates from OC’s experts in the field. View the dedicated website here.