Pest Analysis England

†¢Environmental regulations and protection: As the menace of coal smoke receded the society changed its name (to the National Society for Clean Air) and its focus, and in the 1970s began to campaign vigorously on air pollution from industry and, increasingly, transport. During this period membership was mainly (although far from exclusively) drawn from local authorities, with some industrial membership. Perhaps the main achievement of the Society after the Clean Air Acts was the development of the concept of Local Air Quality Management and the incorporation of this in the Environment Act 1995.The original Environment Bill was intended to deal with issues such as the establishment of the Environment Agency, contaminated land, National Parks and waste topics. †¢Tax policies Britain is becoming a less attractive place to invest and work in because of government tax plans, trade and investment minister Digby Jones said on Friday, the latest non-political appointee to question policy. The ruling Labor party has come under pressure to match opposition plans to raise more tax from wealthy foreigners living and working in Britain.It has proposed to end tax breaks which mean rich residents who are non-domiciled for fiscal purposes pay no UK tax. †¢International trade regulations and restrictions a. Import Tariffs Customs duty is assessed on the fair market value of imported goods at the time they are landed in the UK. Import prices for products entering the UK from non-EU states generally consist of: Cost, Insurance, Freight and Duty, with VAT of 15% levied on the aggregate value. This sum is the exporter’s â€Å"landed cost, duty paid. The commercial invoice value is usually accepted as the normal price, but if a preferential arrangement has been established between the overseas supplier and the importer, or an unrealistic value has been declared, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) reserves the right to assess a fair market value for duty purposes. T he duty is payable at the time the goods are imported, but established importers can defer payment for an average of 30 days. In addition to customs duties on imported goods, an excise tax is levied on in-country sales of alcohol, tobacco, and road vehicles, and on sales of oil and petroleum products. . Trade Barriers The UK has no significant trade or investment barriers and no restrictions on the transfer of capital or repatriation of profits. The very few barriers that exist are almost all attributable to UK implementation of EU Directives and regulations. c. Import Requirements and Documentation A limited range of goods requires import licenses, which are issued by the UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform’s Import Licensing Branch. These include firearms and explosives, nuclear materials, controlled drugs and certain items of military equipment. d. U.S. Export Controls U. S. exports to the UK are subject to the normal U. S. export control regulatio ns, administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) for dual-use items and the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) for military end-use items. In June 2007, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair announced a forthcoming bilateral Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty, intended to greatly reduce licensing requirements arising from government-to government defense programs. At the time of writing, the Treaty is under review by the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.In addition to International Trafficking in Arms Regulations (ITAR), re-exports from the UK and the activities of UK-based subsidiaries, are subject to UK export controls. These are managed by the Export Control Organization (ECO), an office of the UK Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). U. S. companies supplying certain restricted items appearing on the UK Military List, including missile and long-range UAV technology, are encouraged to consult guidance available from the E CO website on the trafficking and brokering provisions contained in the UK Export Control Act 2002. . Temporary Entry Raw materials, temporarily imported for incorporation into products for export, may be admitted without payment of duties and taxes. The importer must provide a bank or insurance company guarantee or indemnity for the applicable duties and taxes. Goods intended for unaltered re-export may also be imported free of duty for a period of up to six months by prior arrangement with Her Majesty’s Revenue & Custom (HMRC). Temporary entries and goods imported for technical examination and testing are subject to a VAT deposit scheme with VAT refunded following the re-export of the goods.Products imported for repair, calibration, or incorporation are admitted with conditional relief from duty and VAT pending correct disposal of goods, usually re-export from the European Community. Professional and demonstration equipment may be temporarily imported into the UK free of du ty and tax under the Customs Convention on the Temporary Importation of Professional Equipment. Additionally, these goods may also be imported under the above-mentioned VAT deposit scheme for temporary entries. f. Labeling and Marking RequirementsIn the UK, origin, weight and dimension, chemical composition and appropriate hazard warnings are required for consumer protection purposes on any product offered for retail sale. If the product cannot be labeled or marked, the data may be included on any packaging, accompanying printed material, or product literature. European and British clothing and shoe sizes are differently marked, and special provision may have to be made for apparel retail labeling. Dual labeling is strongly supported by the UK, which uses the practice as a cost-saving measure in its exports to North America. . Prohibited and Restricted Imports Prohibited imports include AM citizens band radios, switchblade knives, devices that project toxic, noxious or harmful subst ances (e. g. , tear gas), counterfeit coins and currency, certain types of pornography and hormone-treated beef. The UK participates in the Wassenaar Arrangement for the control of dual-use exports; the Australia Group (AG) for the control of chemical and biological weapons; and the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) for nuclear-related goods, preventing the export of restricted goods and echnology to countries of proliferation concern. The UK also supports United Nations’ sanctions restricting exports to certain other destinations. Although sensitive to the extraterritorial application of U. S. law in export controls, the UK authorities cooperate with the U. S. in preventing the re-export of sensitive goods and technology of U. S. -origin to unauthorized destinations, when the enforcement action is based on multilateral controls. h. Customs Regulations and Contact InformationThe documents required for shipments include the commercial invoice, bill of lading or airway bill , packing list, insurance documents, and, when required, special certificates of origin, sanitation, ownership, etc. A copy of the commercial invoice should accompany the shipment to avoid delays in customs clearance. It is worth noting that imprecise descriptions are a common reason for goods being held without customs clearance, meaning that a clear description of the goods is essential and should be worded in such a way as to describe the goods to an individual who may not necessarily have an understanding of a particular industry or article.A clear description of goods should satisfy three basic questions as to what the product is, for what is it used, and of what it is made. No special form of invoice is required, but all of the details needed to establish the true value of the goods should be given. At least two additional copies of the invoice should be sent to the consignees to facilitate customs clearance. Consular documents are not required for shipments to the UK. †¢ Contract enforcement lawA contract is a promise or a set of promises for the breach of which the law gives a remedy, or the performance of which the law in some way recognizes as a duty. This may be seen as giving three interconnected elements: a. A promise In the context of English law, a reference to a promise here may be seen as misleading. It is often (rightly) stated that English law will not give effect to a mere promise and that an agreement, or meeting of minds, is required. In fact, this is simply a way of distinguishing between two types of promise, namely those which do and don't give rise to a legal duty.Thus, a promise to meet one's other half for dinner at 7pm gives rise to no legal obligation – it is a â€Å"mere† promise – whereas a promise to sell someone a car for ? 5000 gives rise to legal obligation. b. A legal duty arising from that promise Here, English contract doctrine distinguishes between bilateral and unilateral contracts. A bilateral contract gives rise to obligations on both sides. Thus in a contract of sale, the seller has an obligation to transfer title in the thing sold to the buyer, whilst the buyer has an obligation to pay the price.A unilateral contract, by contrast, gives rise to obligations on one side only. Thus â€Å"I will give you ? 100 if you run a marathon† gives rise to a legal duty on the maker of the statement (the promisor) to pay the money if the race is run, whilst the person to whom the statement is made (the promisee) is under no obligation to run in the first place. c. A remedy for breach of that duty In considering the development of remedies, a fundamental distinction in English law between common law (often just abbreviated to law) and equity must be understood.For much of its history, England had two separate systems of law working side by side, each of which had different rules. One, administered by the courts of common pleas and King’s Bench, was called â€Å"the comm on law†; the other, presided over by the Lord Chancellor in the court of chancery was â€Å"equity†. Since the Judicature Acts of the nineteenth century the two systems have been administered by the same courts, although they remain separate sets of doctrine.Most important for our current purposes is that the two systems developed different sets of remedies for breach of contract, although other equitable rules which have application to contracts will be discussed as they arise. d. Proof of promise: Objective intention e. Form of promise: Offer & acceptance f. Form of promise: Certainty g. Validity of promise: Intention to create legal relations h. Validity of promise: Consideration †¢Consumer protection The United Kingdom, as member state of the European Union, is bound by the consumer protection directives of the EU.Domestic (UK) laws originated within the ambit of contract and tort but, with the influence of EU law, it is emerging as an independent area of law. In many circumstances, where domestic law is in question, the matter judicially treated as tort, contract, restitution or even criminal law. Consumer Protection issues are dealt with when complaints are made to the Director-General of Fair Trade. The Office of Fair Trading [3]will then investigate, impose an injunction or take the matter to litigation. However, consumers cannot directly complain to the OFT.Complaints need to be made to Consumer Direct who will provide legal advice to complainants, or re-direct the individual complaint to Trading Standards for investigation. Due to restrictions within the Enterprise Act 2002, individual complainants are unable to be told whether their case is being investigated or not. In very rare cases, Consumer Direct may direct a very large number of complaints to the OFT to be considered as a systemic complaint. The OFT can also be engaged by consumer groups e. g.The Consumers Association or the statutory consumer protection body – Consum er Focus – via a super complaint. The OFT rarely prosecute companies, however, preferring a light touch regulation approach. Consumer complaints against companies are not published, but investigation work, undertakings and enforcements are located at [2]. Many of the consumer protection laws e. g. Distance Selling Regulations 2000 or Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Act 1997 are actually UK implementations of EU directives. The OFT is one of the bodies responsible for enforcing these rules.This leads to a problem in that these examples of legislation are clearly designed to deal with individual complaints but the OFT will only deal with systemic complaints and will ignore individual complainants redirecting them back to Consumer Direct. The Office of Fair Trading [3] also acts as the UK's official consumer and competition watchdog, with a remit to make markets work well for consumers, and at a local, municipal level by Trading Standards departments. General consumer advice can be obtained from Consumer Direct or via a local branch of the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Employment laws The law has given employees – and in many cases other workers who might not count as employees – rights and entitlements in relation to how they are disciplined and dismissed, how their grievances are handled, wages, absence from work and sickness, holidays, work breaks and working hours, time off for family emergencies, maternity and paternity leave, the right to apply for flexible working, redundancy and retirement. All workers have the right not to be discriminated against in relation to their gender or orientation, race, age, disabilities, or religion and beliefs.Staff who feel they have been denied their rights have redress by taking their employers to an Employment Tribunal. The chances of this happening have increased three-fold for employers in the past decade or so. There was a year on year increase in Employment Tribunal claims of 56 per cent last year ( 2009-10) bringing the number of claims received to their highest level ever at 236,100 claims (source: Tribunals Service). In unfair dismissal cases employers can be ordered to pay compensation of more than ? 76,000. In discrimination cases compensation awards are theoretically unlimited and six-figure payouts are not uncommon.