Monthly Archives: March 2017

New Course – Modern Slavery: Practical Steps for Procurement

Online Modern Slavery course for procurement teams

New modern slavery course for procurement teams

VinciWorks has just released a new advanced course on Modern Slavery. A companion to the introductory Modern Slavery: Preventing Exploitation, this 45 minute course is tailored to procurement teams. It gives further insight into modern slavery in supply chains and will help carry out risk assessments. The course can be fully customised to suit internal procedures.

The course includes:

  • Common problems to look out for in the supply chain
  • High risk countries and products
  • Real-life scenarios from different parts of the supply chain to test your ability to spot red flags
  • Practical steps for projects
  • Questions to ask potential suppliers
  • Guidance on addressing risks of modern slavery in your supply chain

Industry-specific red flags

Mobile devices created by modern slaves

Our course highlights industries where modern slavery is most likely to occur

Click below to demo the course for free.

Demo the course

Have religious symbols been banned at work?

A group of people from all around the world

What your company needs to know about the new EU court ruling on headscarves at work

What happened?

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) recently ruled that companies can have a general policy banning all religious and political symbols if it is ‘objectively justified’, as the Court says. The problem is that in 2013, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), an entirely separate institution from the Court of Justice, held that employees have the right to manifest their freedom of religion at work.

The ECHR decided that a British Airways check-in worker was prevented from expressing her religious belief when she was banned from wearing a crucifix at work. Even though BA went on to amend their uniform policy to allow her to wear a crucifix, the ruling was thought to have established a precedent which has now been thrown into confusion.
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Draft Money Laundering Regulations 2017 released – no CDD exemption for pooled accounts

UK 20 pound notes

On 17th March, HM Treasury released a draft of Money Laundering Regulations 2017, which transposes the Fourth Money Laundering Directive into UK Law. At the same time, the government published a new consultation requesting the public’s view on the draft. Below are the key takeaways.

No automatic exemption from enhanced due diligence for pooled accounts

The Law Society has lost its battle for an explicit assurance that financial institutions can apply simplified customer due diligence to pooled client accounts. SDD will only be permitted when the firms providing pooled accounts are considered low risk.

HM treasury said that “Pooled client accounts could potentially be exploited for money laundering”, citing examples and findings from the Government’s National Risk Assessment on money laundering.

VinciWorks will be updating all of its anti-money laundering courses accordingly and launching a new AML refresher course later in the year.

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Does Uber pay VAT? Tax dodging and the gig economy

Uber offices

The gig economy has a compliance problem

The gig economy is creating a multitude of unpaid tax liabilities, and HMRC may be ready to use new tax dodging laws to crackdown on start-ups and their “self-employed” workers.

In 2017 the Criminal Finances Bill and Finance Bill comes into force, making it easier to prosecute the professional services that seek to help tax evaders, as well as the lawyers and accountants devising or selling schemes, to help people avoid tax. So how will a crackdown on tax evaders and tax avoiders impact the gig economy?

HMRC launched a consultation document in 2016 called “Tackling the hidden economy: extension of data-gathering powers to money service businesses.” This promises new powers for HMRC to gather and acquire data from online intermediaries and electronic payment providers to uncover those who are operating in the “hidden economy.”
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Data protection checklist – are you GDPR ready?

Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation requires demonstrable compliance with the new regulations. With GDPR set to come into force in May 2018, ensuring your staff are aware of your organisation’s data protection policies is now more important than ever.

Data protection changes under GDPR

Are you familiar with GDPR? Does your organisation have a process for data portability? GDPR legislation now allows individuals to obtain and reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services. Other changes include the requirement for certain organisations to appoint a Data Protection Officer. Further, under GDPR, sensitive information now includes biometric and genetic information. This means that organisations should familiarise themselves with GDPR and ensure staff understand how to process personal data.
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GDPR ready data protection policy template

Data protection

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is set to come into full force in May 2018. It will present the most significant change to EU data protection in 20 years, meaning organisations must update their policies to ensure they are compliant. Further, all staff who are involved with the processing and storing of data must be familiar with their organisation’s data protection policy. We have therefore provided a data protection policy template to help your staff understand and follow your organisation’s data protection procedures.

Read more: The GDPR resource page

What should a data protection policy include?

Who is responsible for the data protection policy?

Staff should know who to approach if they have any questions regarding the data protection policy or anything related to the processing of personal data. Under GDPR, certain organisations are required to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO). It will be their role to advise the company on the rules needed to ensure compliance with data protection laws.
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