HLAS

Thinking ahead and preparing for what the weather may bring can make a real difference. There are some simple steps you can take to stay safe and healthy at this time of year – from preparing your home or business to taking care of yourself, your family, and neighbours. The Met Office provide up-to-date, expert seasonal advice from carefully selected organisations to help you prepare for and respond to the weather, to stay safe and protect yourself, your homes, and businesses. See: WeatherReady - Met Office

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); and eagerness to impress workmates and managers. This means workers new to a site: may not recognise hazards as a potential source of danger; may not understand [...]

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is reminding employed workers that they can claim a refund on work-related expenses directly through GOV.UK. Workers can claim for work-related expenses including: uniforms and work clothing; buying work-related equipment; professional fees, union memberships, and subscriptions; and using their own vehicle for work travel (excluding journeys from home to work). See: Claim tax relief for your job expenses: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade association for UK retail businesses, research shows that shop price annual inflation accelerated to 9.0% at the start of May, up slightly from 8.8% in April. This is above the 3-month average rate of 8.9%. This brings shop price growth to a new high, although it is now beginning to fall. Source: Food inflation eased in May (brc.org.uk) The Office for National Statistics (ONS) April report shows that food and non-alcoholic beverage prices saw a monthly increase of 1.4% compared with a rise of 1.5% in the equivalent time period last year and an [...]

Last week Amazon announced that, for warehouse workers, it is to offer parents term-time only contracts.  The new contracts would guarantee those who care for school-age children, including guardians, six weeks of holiday in the summer and two weeks over the Easter and Christmas breaks. Employees will be entitled to all full-time benefits. Following a recent UK Government consultation, flexible working will become the default for millions of employees who will be able to request flexible working from day one of their employment. Flexible working doesn’t just mean a combination of working from home and in the office – it [...]

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has updated its guidance on managing health and safety for employers. Employers are responsible for managing health and safety in their business. This includes managing risks and taking practical steps to protect workers and others from harm. Managing risk is just one part of health and safety management. You must also have arrangements in place to: make the right plans; implement those plans; check they are working; and act if they are not. By doing this, you should be able to ensure: your risks stay controlled; and you provide a safe working environment for [...]

The Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) is for non-domestic customers that use energy provided by licence-exempt suppliers, where prices paid are pegged to wholesale prices. This is energy taken from the public electricity or gas grid, or received via wire or pipe. The scheme will provide support between 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. Further information on how and when to apply for support under the EBDS will be published in due course. Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) If you’re eligible for the higher level of support to businesses and organisations, you will need to apply for this support. [...]

Cyber Essentials is a Government backed scheme that will help you to protect your organisation, whatever its size, against a whole range of the most common cyber-attacks. Cyber-attacks come in many shapes and sizes, but the vast majority are very basic in nature, carried out by relatively unskilled individuals. They’re the digital equivalent of a thief trying your front door to see if it’s unlocked. Our advice is designed to prevent these attacks. Cyber Essentials This self-assessment option gives you protection against a wide variety of the most common cyber-attacks. This is important because vulnerability to basic attacks can mark [...]

Listed below are a number of live HMRC webinars that will help employers with payroll. The webinars are free and last around an hour: Expenses and benefits for your employees – phones, internet, and homeworking Tue 27 Jun at 11:45am Expenses and benefits for your employees - if your employees have more than one workplace Fri 16 Jun at 11:45am Expenses and benefits for your employees - travel Fri 23 Jun at 9:45am Company directors - payroll and you Mon 5 Jun at 9:45am Expenses and benefits for your employees - company cars, vans, and fuel Thu 15 Jun at [...]

Innovation has generally been recognised as essential for value creation, both for individual companies and for the UK economy as a whole. The development of new ideas, processes, and technologies and their flow across different sectors is a significant driver of economic growth and productivity. Recently, innovation has also been identified as crucial to the transition of the economy away from fossil fuels and carbon-intensive business activities. There are many factors that affect whether and how businesses innovate, for example the availability of skills, capital, and government policy measures such as tax incentives. However, none are more important that the [...]