On Thursday, 10th March 2022, the British Government published the draft terms of reference for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry (‘the Inquiry’).
A summary of the 12-week public consultation on increasing the general civil jurisdiction of the County Court and proposed next steps was published in November 2021.
On 21st March 2022, the Department of Justice (NI) announced that the new Personal Injury Discount Rate (‘PIDR’) for claims involving damages for future loss (including future earnings or anticipated costs of care) in Northern Ireland has been determined at -1.5%.
The High Court in England has recently ruled in favour of an insurer in granting summary judgement in a claim brought under Third Party(Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010. In this article, Darren Thompson, Associate, reviews the case and decision.
In Northern Ireland, HSENI and the Farm Safety Partnership seek to raise awareness of child safety on farms.There are helpful resources as part of the “Be Aware Kids” campaign which contains information for teachers, parents and children to use. In the section for parents there is a reminder to: “prevent all children under 13 years from riding on tractors and farm machinery”.
Good Governance is not a tick box exercise but rather an elephant in the board room at all times, and one to which close attention should be paid. Having a reference point for what good governance looks like is something that all charity boards can benefit from.
In a somewhat novel case, the Technology and Construction Court in England has had to consider whether a party that had carried out construction work was entitled to be paid for that work, or whether he had carried out the work at his own risk.
Since 2020, 9 workers have died in Northern Ireland in incidents involving construction work at height. The Health and Safety Executive of Northern Ireland (“HSENI”) has recently launched a campaign to focus on the dangers of working at height.