The "People at the Heart of Care" white paper, published in 2021 by the Department of Health and Social Care, recognises that housing plays a key role in the debate about health and social care. It recommends "making every decision about care a decision about housing". At the same time...

In January 2023 our Osborne Clarke Knowledge Lawyers made their business law predictions for 2023. Here, we see how those predictions are faring. General We thought that " businesses and their advisers are likely to sharpen their focus on the Opposition's emerging plans for the economy " – perhaps not...

Draft regulations laid to remove civil penalty caps for pollution offences The UK government has laid draft regulations which will remove the current cap of £250,000 on penalties for environmental pollution offences. The Environment Agency and Natural England will now have the power to impose unlimited penalties on relevant offenders...

Construction Act compliance: deducting liquidated damages and setting the final date for payment The recent decision in Lidl Great Britain Limited v Closed Circuit Cooling Limited t/a 3CL has provided some clarity on a number of tricky payment-related issues in the construction market, including when liquidated damages should be deducted...

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), in its much-anticipated market study report into the housebuilding sector in England and Wales published earlier this week, would seem to have granted a momentary reprieve for the practice of so-called "land banking" but delivered a scathing assessment of the planning system. Alongside the...

Environmental Crime Directive published in Official Journal The Environmental Crime Directive was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 30 April 2024 and entered into force on 20 May 2024. Member States are required to implement this by 21 May 2026 and publish a national strategy on combating...

In a judgment of some significance, the doctrine of penalty clauses has been re-cast by the Supreme Court in the case of Cavendish Square v Makdessi; ParkingEye Limited v Beavis. These cases (which are discussed in more detail in our related post here) are not construction cases. Nevertheless, the Supreme...

Against a backdrop of exponential nature loss, there is an increased global focus on environmental issues and, for businesses, on the consequent compliance with measures put in place to tackle the issue. In England, biodiversity net gain, or BNG, is one of the measures being introduced to mitigate nature loss...