Legal aid cuts have
led to surge in DIY defence, wasting time and costing more
A new report, Justice Denied, suggests that a combination of
legal aid cuts, complex bureaucracy and inadequate support and information for
defendants have led to a surge in people appearing in court without a lawyer. In
one example given to the charity behind the report, Transform Justice, an
unrepresented defendant remained silent during his appearance via video link
from a police station. Only after he had been sent to prison did it emerge that
he was deaf. According to the Magistrates Association survey, its members
reported that 25% of defendants who came before them in 2014 were
unrepresented. Of 143 responses, drawn largely from members of the legal
profession, to a Transform Justice poll, 90% felt there had been an increase in
unrepresented defendants in the courts over the last two years. Judges
interviewed for the report agreed that unrepresented defendants considerably
increased the time needed for hearings. Mark Fenhalls QC, the chairman of the
Criminal Bar Association, said: “There is increasing evidence from civil and
criminal courts that restricting legal aid is counter-productive and has made
the court system less efficient and more expensive. An unrepresented defendant
in a criminal trial is like having an unqualified person performing surgery.
The patient, our justice system, is bound to suffer and in the long run society
will spend more money picking up the pieces.” GUARDIAN
TTIP secret courts: Unpublished
UK Government report concluded it has 'lots of risk and no benefit'
The warning was disclosed in response to a Freedom of
Information request by anti-TTIP campaigners Global Justice Now. Supporters of
TTIP say it could boost the European and US economies by hundreds of billions
of dollars by making it easier for companies on either side of the Atlantic to
trade with one another. Opponents say the deal could give corporations the
power to sue governments when they pass regulation that could hit firms'
profits through these secret courts of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement
(ISDS). United Nations figures show US companies have made billions of dollars
by suing other governments nearly 130 times in the past 15 years under similar
free-trade agreements. Details of the cases are often secret, but notorious
precedents include tobacco giant Philip Morris suing Australia and Uruguay for
putting health warnings on cigarette packets. "Ultimately, we conclude
that an EU-US investment treaty that does contain ISDS is likely to have few or
no benefits to the UK, while having meaningful economic and political
costs," the report said. INDEPENDENT
Graduates paid 9%
less than in 2006, say government figures
The latest official statistics show that the long ice age of
wage stagnation is grinding on - and that graduate earnings have been in a deep
freeze stretching back for the past decade. Graduates earn more on average than
non-graduates and are much less likely to be unemployed. Postgraduates earn
even more and those with higher grades of degrees are paid more than those with
lower. But the big backdrop - so big that it's sometimes not seen - is the
long-term flatlining in earnings. The latest graduate earnings figures track
median salaries back to 2006. There was a slight upwards nudge between 2006 and
2008, for young and older graduates - and since then barely a flicker. What is
really tough about these figures is that they are not real-terms numbers,
taking into account inflation. These are salaries in cash terms. A young
graduate in 2008 was typically earning about £24,000 and in 2015 a young
graduate was still typically earning £24,000. Apart from the rising costs of
bills and underlying inflation, think about the other extra factors hitting
graduate finances. They will have £27,000 in tuition fee debt, not to mention
sky-rocketing rent and property prices. More money is going out, without any
more going in. Across the whole graduate population, there has been a similar
glacial freeze in earnings. The typical salary of graduates in 2015 was
£31,500, about £500 more than six years earlier. The Centre for Economic
Performance at the London School of Economics has described this stagnation in
earnings as unlike anything since the 1920s - with an estimated 9% real-terms
drop in average earnings since the recession. This pay-rise drought stretches
across the last years of the Labour administration and through the coalition
and into the current government. The figures also reveal something of a
qualifications arms race. Those with postgraduate degrees have the kind of
benefits that once accrued to those with first degrees. They are likely to earn
considerably more than either graduates or non-graduates and can be very
confident of entering high-skilled careers. BBC NEWS
Boardroom pay system
is not fit for purpose, says top investor group
The system for setting boardroom pay at the biggest
companies on the London stock market is not fit for purpose and needs to be
overhauled, according to an analysis for the Investment Association, a leading
group of shareholders and companies. The review – chaired by Nigel Wilson, the
chief executive of Legal & General – comes after executive pay has tripled
over the past 18 years, a period in which the level of the FTSE 100 has barely
changed. There is also an increasing disparity between executive pay and that
of ordinary staff. The committee that led the review also included the chairman
of Sainsbury’s, David Tyler, and Helena Morrissey, who chairs the association
and runs Newton Investment Management. The report says: “Failure has sometimes
been rewarded, and use of median comparators has driven disproportionate rises
in executive remuneration. This is ultimately damaging to the listed company
sector. At the same time, boards have sometimes outsourced remuneration to
consultants, reducing accountability and creating unwanted outcomes.” GUARDIAN
Secret offshore
owners of UK property may be forced into spotlight
Offshore companies buying UK property could be forced to
reveal their ultimate owners under plans being considered by ministers to crack
down on tax evasion and money laundering. The proposals would shine a spotlight
on the foreign firms that hold billions of pounds in British property without
having to declare who is behind them. It could also require foreign companies
bidding for public sector contracts to do the same. David Cameron is already
forcing all UK companies to reveal their ultimate owners under the new plans
for a register of beneficial ownership from June, so the plans would bring
foreign owners of British property into line with those rules. It comes after
the Guardian and other global media organisations published the leaked Panama
Papers from law firm Mossack Fonseca revealing how some of the world’s wealthy and
powerful used offshore companies to hide their assets. The consultation
document, published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills,
said: “Property can provide a convenient vehicle for hiding the proceeds of
crime. A recent study found that a quarter of solicitors’ firms surveyed had
experienced clients attempting to use property transactions to launder money or
commit fraud. GUARDIAN
How Philip Green's
family made millions as value of BHS plummeted
When Sir Philip Green bought BHS in May 2000, he insisted it
would not be rocket science to revive the ailing high street retailer. After
paying £200m, he was convinced he had the skills to secure its future and make
it the foundation of a sprawling retail empire. But last year, after failing in
his mission, Green sold BHS for £1 to a little known group of investors who
have steered it into collapse in just over 12 months. His dreams for the chain
may have come to nothing, but Green’s family have still been big winners from
BHS, taking out more than £580m in dividends, rental payments and interest on
loans to help fund a lavish lifestyle. As the pensions regulator considers
whether to pursue Green for between £200m and £300m – to help fill the black
hole in BHS’s pension schemes that had developed since 2000 – he is awaiting
delivery of his latest toy: a $150m (£100m) superyacht named Lionheart. The
90-metre vessel will join Green’s two other yachts, speedboat, helicopter and
Gulfstream jet, which comes in handy for his weekly trips to and from Monaco to
visit his family. Green and his wife Tina were listed as the UK’s 29th richest
family in last weekend’s Sunday Times rich list, which estimated their worth as
£3.22bn. That total excludes the £280m which researchers suggested Greens might
have to hand over to the pensions regulator. Tina, who since 2004 has been the
legal owner of BHS – and the Arcadia Group, which includes Topshop, Miss
Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins – is based in Monaco. The handover of BHS to
Green’s wife was completed just before the family paid themselves £1.2bn in
dividends from Arcadia in 2005, the biggest pay cheque in British corporate
history, equivalent to four times the group’s then profits. GUARDIAN
London skyscraper
rents rising faster than the rest of the world
The upmarket estate agent Knight Frank said the cost of
renting in office towers such as the Shard, Walkie Talkie and Cheesegrater rose
9.7% to $126 (£87.50) per square foot in the second half of 2015 from the
previous six months and by 21.4% from a year earlier. London rents rose twice
as fast as those in San Francisco, at 4.76%, and three times quicker than in
Hong Kong and Mumbai, where rents went up by 3%. The 21-city skyscraper index
compared the rental performance of commercial buildings of more than 30 storeys
across the world against the first half of 2015. The UK capital also topped the
table between January and June 2015, with an 11% rise in rents. The skyscraper
index shows that Hong Kong remains the most expensive place to rent in the
world – the average rent is more than twice as high as in London, at $263.25
per sq ft per year. New York remains in second place at $155, followed by Tokyo
at $128.75 and London at $126. Until about 10 years ago, there were few
skyscrapers in London. Between the NatWest tower in 1979 and the Gherkin in
2003, not a single one was built in the City. But now there are 436 buildings
above 20 storeys in the pipeline across London. The high-rise boom has provoked
controversy over its impact on the skyline, while residents and businesses are
concerned about wind tunnels and a lack of light. Bruce Dear, the head of
London real estate at Eversheds, said: “There is a floating city above London
in the Canary Wharf and City tower clusters. Space in these towers is scarce
and high status, like high-rise white truffles. So the towers rental market
obeys different laws to the rents of ground dwellers. Ultimately, scarcity is
allowing these towers to defy the slowing global economy.” GUARDIAN
Asda shamed by UK
competition authority over promotions - but watchdog admits it cannot ban dodgy
special offers
In a bid to stamp out 'confusing and misleading' special
offers, Asda has agreed to stop advertising 'now' prices for longer than the
'was' price was applied and ensure multi-buy offers represent better value than
a single product before the offer. But while this may seem like progress, the
Competition & Markets Authority stressed it 'has no intention (nor is it
empowered) to "ban" particular types of special offers, such as
multi-buy promotions'. The CMA’s response follows a 'super complaint' lodged by
consumer group Which? in April last year, accusing supermarkets of using
'misleading' pricing tactics, including confusing multi-buy offers and
shrinking pack sizes without any corresponding price reductions. The CMA
reported last July that it had found that supermarkets were misleading
customers with confusing pricing promotions that could be against the law. Examples
include: Hovis Medium Sliced Soft White Bread (800g), which was sold at “£1
(was £1.20)” even though the price before the offer started was £1, and the
product had not been sold at £1.20 for 116 days; Asda increased the regular
price of Uncle Ben's rice from £1 to £1.58 as it went onto a '2 for £3'
multi-buy, then returned it to £1 when the multi-buy ended - making it 50p more
expensive per pack (2013); Online grocer Ocado increased the price of Waitrose
blueberries to £3.99 for a week, before selling them on offer at £2.66 for over
a month (2013); Tesco sold Flash All Purpose Cleaning Spray on offer for £1 for
47 days but it had only been at the higher price of £2 for 17 days (2013). Which?
found that around 40 per cent of groceries in the UK are sold on promotion. DAILY MAIL
