Business Companion provides information for businesses and individuals that need to know about trading standards and consumer protection legislation. The guidance is divided up into 15 broad Quick Guides and each one contains a number of more detailed In-depth Guides. There may be rules you are not aware of, so make sure you explore the site thoroughly. Business Companion covers Trading Standards law for England, Scotland and Wales and is backed by UK Government. For...
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Paid annual leave is a legal right that an employer must provide. Holiday pay is worked out according to the kind of hours someone works and how they’re paid for the hours. This includes: full-time workers part-time workers agency workers workers working irregular shifts casual workers including zero-hours contracts Workers are entitled to a week’s pay for each week of statutory leave that they take. You can use the holiday calculator to work out how...
Understanding your role as a company director and your responsibilities to Companies House. As a director, you’re legally responsible for running the company and making sure information is sent to Companies House on time. This includes: the confirmation statement the annual accounts, even if they’re dormant any change in your company’s officers or their personal details a change to your company’s registered office allotment of shares registration of charges (mortgage) any change in your company’s...
Find out about methods fraudsters use to try and get your personal information by viewing examples of scams identified by HMRC. HMRC will sometimes contact customers by telephone, email, letter and also sometimes use research companies to contact customers. If you’re not sure the contact is genuine then take a look the updated guidance on examples of HMRC related phishing emails, suspicious phone calls and texts. The guidance includes: QR codes Text messages Coronavirus (COVID-19)...
With summer arriving and the subsequent increase in seasonal work, workers are as likely to have an accident in the first six months at a workplace as during the whole of the rest of their working life. The extra risk arises due to: lack of experience of working in a new industry or workplace lack of familiarity with the job and the work environment reluctance to raise concerns (or not knowing how to) eagerness to...
It’s important to make sure your workplace is inclusive of deaf people and people with hearing loss. If you don’t, you’re excluding a large number of people: for example, 1 in 5 people of working age have hearing loss which may have an impact on their communication, productivity and wellbeing. The RNID (Royal National Institute for Deaf People) is an independent charity supporting the 12 million people in the UK who are deaf or have...
Helo Blod, a free Welsh translation and advice service, is celebrating translating 1 million words having introduced more than 1000 businesses across Wales to the benefits of using more Welsh as part of a push to help double the daily use of Welsh by 2050. Launched in March 2020 to support the Welsh Government’s Cymraeg 2050 strategy, Helo Blod offers businesses and charities up to 500 words a month translated, free of charge. The fast...
Find out more about your rights under the Equality Act 2010 and how it protects different characteristics. Everyone in Britain is protected. This is because the Equality Act protects people against discrimination because of the protected characteristics that we all have. This information is for employees, employers, individuals using a service, any organisation using a service and the public sector. Under the Equality Act, there are nine protected characteristics: age disability gender reassignment marriage and...
The British Standards Institution (BSI) have produced a straightforward ‘how to’ guide to help you start your business sustainability journey ‘The Little Book of Net Zero’. You probably didn’t think much about climate change when you started your business. But climate change affects us all, and we can all play a part in combatting it. In order to address this problem, the UK has set a target to achieve ‘Net Zero’ GHG emissions by 2050...
