Liz Truss to launch ‘war on technocrats’ by merging City watchdogs August 18, 2022 Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss is planning an immediate shakeup of the City’s major regulators if she wins the race to become prime minister. Truss is planning to merge the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and Payments System Regulator (PSR) into a single, new body. The Conservative party MP’s plans comes [...]
Auditor BDO quits Tory co-chair’s concierge service Quintessentially August 17, 2022 BDO is reportedly resigning as auditor of Quintessentially, the members-only concierge service founded by Tory party co-chair Ben Elliot, following a breakdown in their relationship. The auditing firm has cut ties with Quintessentially’s travel service, and is also set to exit its relationship with the wider group, the Financial Times reported. BDO declined to comment on the report. [...]
Harrods threatens to become first major employer to use agency staff as strikebreakers August 16, 2022 The staffing agency industry’s trade body has hit out at Harrods after the luxury department store threatened to take advantage of new laws allowing it to break strikes using temporary workers. Harrods told its staff it is willing to use temporary workers to keep its shop running after employees at the Knightsbridge shop threatened to [...]
UK’s professional services sector weathers economic headwinds August 13, 2022 The UK’s professional services sector has continued to grow its turnovers in the face of major economic headwinds, new UK government data shows. The accountancy sector’s turnovers increased 3.7 per cent, from £3.41bn in May to £3.54bn in June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows. The country’s legal sector also saw its turnovers [...]
Law Society calls for ‘sustained investment’ in courts to cut worsening case backlog August 13, 2022 The Law Society has called on the government to make “sustained investment” in the UK’s court system after new data showed the case backlog has gotten worse over the previous quarter. The backlog of cases waiting to be heard in the England and Wales Crown Courts has increased from 58,540 in April to 58,973 in [...]
Russian economy shrinks by four per cent due to impacts of Western sanctions August 13, 2022 The Russian is now four per cent smaller than it was a year ago, according to new figures from the country’s state statistics agency. Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) for Q2 2022 equals a sum equivalent to 96 per cent the value of the country’s economy in Q2 2021, the preliminary Rosstat statistics show. The [...]
Magistrates court workers vote to strike over digital system August 11, 2022 Members of the union representing Magistrates’ court workers today voted in favour of plans to strike over complaints about the digitalization of England and Wales’ court systems. Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) are calling on the government to reconsider its plans to digitalise the courts through the launch of its Common Platform. [...]
UK audit body opens consultation on plans to update public sector accounting guidance August 9, 2022 The UK’s Public Audit Forum (PAF) has opened a consultation on revising the guidance on auditing public sector entities. The PAF, a consortium of the UK’s four national audit agencies, are calling on auditors and other stakeholders to offer their views on plans to amend Practice Note 10, which provides guidance on auditing public [...]
KPMG restarts UK government contract bids August 8, 2022 KPMG has restarted competing for UK government contracts, after the Big Four accounting firm withdrew from public sector tenders last December, following a series of high-profile accounting scandals. The Big Four accountancy firm re-commenced bidding for UK public sector contracts in early-June, after it pulled out of competing for lucrative UK government contracts at the [...]
Dominic Raab weighs up plans for further barriers to judicial reviews August 8, 2022 Justice secretary Dominic Raab is considering introducing new measures to make it harder to challenge government decisions via judicial reviews, leaked documents seen by the Guardian show. The plans could also see judges subject to new more stringent criteria in bringing forward cases, that could see courts banned from hearing cases in certain areas of [...]