The Russian invasion of Ukraine which began on 24 February 2022 has displaced millions and killed tens of thousands of people. The war has also created several overlapping crises, from refugees to food supplies and massive supply chain disruption.
The conflict has also sparked waves of new laws around the world, from sanctions to tougher economic crime compliance. The main victims of the war are of course those directly caught up in it, but businesses all around the world are experiencing the effects of this unprecedented global event which shows no sign of slowing down in the next year.
VinciWorks has created a guide that reviews the key compliance challenges and lessons which have impacted on business one year into this devastating conflict.
We are all multi-dimensional in our identities. Someone may be both a woman of colour and a lesbian, for example, or an older man from an economically deprived background may also have a disability. Both of them may well have a faith, and they may also be parents or carers. Few of us see our identity in terms of one sole defining characteristic, but initiatives around inclusion have often tended to take precisely that approach, failing to appreciate the complex interplay between the different characteristics and experiences that make us who we are.
In November 2022 HMRC released the summary of responses from their consultation on the UK’s Mandatory Disclosure Rules (MDR).
The consultation clarified that:
The historic lookback period will go back to 25th June 2018 (and not 29th October 2014 as originally stated).
Reporting will be via XML only.
With UK MDR expected to come into force in the first half of 2023, Vinciworks was joined by John Sandeman, HMRC’s policy official for Mandatory Disclosure Rules, who helped our listeners get to grips with the UK MDR and how it may impact your organisation.
The webinar covered:
What are the key differences between UK DAC6 and UK MDR?
Andy Donovan, Managing Director and Founder of Compliance Office
The SRA have released further guidance and rules over the last few months. In this blog, Compliance Office’s Andrew Donovan shares the key points.
Understanding SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation)
With increasing public concern that some solicitors are using SLAPPs on behalf of their clients, the SRA has issued a warning notice that tells law firms not to act for clients in this way and outlines some of the activities they would consider to be abusive litigation. A ‘SLAPP’ typically refers to some sort of legal threat or action intended to stifle public commentary or publication. The concern is solicitors being hired to inappropriately threaten and scare people from speaking up.
Solicitors should only be labelling correspondence as ‘not for publication’, ‘strictly private and confidential’ and/or ‘without prejudice’ when the conditions for using those terms are fulfilled. The new guidance and warnings make clear that confidential markings cannot unilaterally impose a duty of privacy or confidentiality where one does not already exist. Similarly, making excessive or meritless claims or aggressive or intimidating threats will result in regulatory action. The SRA could not be much clearer that firms should not be hired simply to scare people off if there are no legitimate legal grounds to make any relevant claims or threats. The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is actually considering following the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in issuing guidance on strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs).
As regulations are tightening and the risk landscape is continually evolving, firms are facing increasing pressure to make sure that their Anti Money Laundering (AML) compliance programme is effective. Beyond the implications of fines or damage to reputation is the very real danger of disruptions to operations and in particular criminal liability.
It’s critical for firms to assess if their AML framework is strong and robust enough to prevent and detect instances where the business can be manipulated to clean money or to finance terrorism.
An independent audit provides this assurance and enables the firm to address issues before they become a problem or are detected by the authorities.
The new offences of failure to prevent fraud are likely to shake up corporate compliance for all UK business. How will they work in practice?
The UK government have announced they are pushing ahead with a game-changing new regulation to expand the ‘failure to prevent’ family of offences to failure to prevent fraud.
Proposed amendments could even see corporate officers jailed if they take a decision, or fail to take a decision, that could lead to economic crime such as fraud, false accounting or money laundering being committed.
Failure to prevent encompasses a wide array of compliance failures, from not having the right policies in place, to a lack of procedures to even training courses that aren’t effective in delivering the right information to employees.
Download our detailed guide: “Failure to Prevent: A Guide to Compliance” and find out more about the family of failure to prevent offences, including the new failure to prevent fraud offence currently going through the UK parliament.
Failure to prevent fraud will apply to all businesses, and require them to have certain procedures in place, or face criminal liability.
This free guide includes:
What is failure to prevent?
What’s new in failure to prevent?
Why is failure to prevent fraud being considered and who will it cover?
Failure to prevent fraud in detail
Failure to prevent tax evasion
Failure to prevent bribery
The future of failure to prevent
Download your guide to failure to prevent now and stay on top of this game-changing new regulation that’s set to shake up corporate compliance.
This week is Race Equality Week, an annual UK-wide initiative that brings together thousands of organisations and individuals to raise awareness and address the current barriers to race equality in the workplace.
This year’s theme for UK Race Equality Week is #ItsEveryonesBusiness because tackling race inequality is everyone’s business.
February is LGBT+ history month, the annual month-long celebration that recognises the history and contributions of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and nonbinary (LGBT+) community.
It’s also an opportunity to raise awareness of the issues LGBT+ people face and reflect on the history of LGBT+ rights.
This year’s theme for the month is ‘Behind the Lens’, and the idea is to highlight the contributions of behind-the-scenes workers in the world of film and cinema from the LGBT+ community.
How can organisations participate?
There are many ways for organisations to support and participate in LGBT+ history month, including organising events and workshops, offer training and information, and encouraging employees to bring their whole and authentic selves to work.
Skill Boosters and VinciWorks have published a short but useful workplace awareness guide about LGBT+ history month that gives some background on the month, talks about this year’s theme, and provides a list of actionable ways that organisations and employees can take an active role and participate in LGBT+ history month.
Download your copy of the Inclusion Awareness Calendar today
LGBT+ month is just one of the many dates included in Skill Boosters’ new Inclusion Awareness Calendar, which lists awareness days and campaigns for organisations and individuals to know about and support and participate in throughout the year.
The calendar is available for free, instant download. It can be hung up in your organisation’s offices to raise awareness of the various days throughout the year, helping to create an even more inclusive culture where all workers feel understood, comfortable and valued. Click the button below to download your copy today.
Skill Boosters offers a huge library of video-based training for inclusion, leadership and teamwork. Their video-based training addresses meaningful workplace challenges in equality, diversity and inclusion, leadership and teamwork and feature analysis and advice from industry experts, case studies based on genuine issues from the workplace, high quality contemporary drama scenarios, and real people sharing their real lived experiences.
Skill Boosters Access-all Licensing Plans (ALPs)
Skill Boosters offers Access-all Licensing Plans (ALPs), which are the flexible and cost-effective way to access the entire Skill Boosters catalogue of high-quality, video-based training courses and resources. For a great value annual subscription fee, based on the size of your organisation or region, you get 12-months’ on-demand access to all Skill Boosters courses and resources via our online Membersʼ Resource Centre (MRC). Use as many of our short films, courses, videos and trainer packs as you need.
VinciWorks Diversity and Inclusion resources and tools
Diversity and inclusion training
VinciWorks’ suite of diversity and inclusion courses empowers users to recognise diversity issues in the workplace and gives them the tools to transform office culture.
Diversity and inclusion resource page
Our diversity and inclusion resource page includes dozens of resources, guides, policy templates and assessments to help organisations implement inclusive workplaces that promote equality and do not tolerate racism or harassment.
Diversity questionaire
Our diversity questionaire, powered by our flexible yet powerful data collection and reporting tool, Omnitrack, helps organistations understand their employees’ attitudes towards diversity in the workplace and allows organisations to measure and improve their staff’s perception of workplace inclusion.
The ‘failure to prevent’ concept is being expanded to fraud, false accounting and money laundering
The UK government have announced they are pushing ahead with a game-changing new regulation to expand the ‘failure to prevent’ family of offences to failure to prevent fraud.
The announcement came during Parliamentary debate over the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill which aims for a wide-reaching attempt to tackle all aspects of economic crime, along with reform of Companies House.
