Business Law - Spring Update 2010
As if the current economic conditions weren’t challenging enough for businesses, the flow of new regulations from Westminster seems to continue unabated. In this update we take a look at 4 areas where the regime is changing. We also include a section on how contracts are interpreted.
If you would like further advice or help on these issues – or any others you are dealing with at present – please do get in touch with us: contact details for various members of the Business Services Team appear here.
And if you have any comments on this update or thoughts on other ways we can assist you, please do get in touch! | 
You may notice that the new style annual returns which are required to be submitted to Companies House each year now require companies to confirm more information about their share capital. This includes a new ‘Statement of Capital’ which confirms the number of shares in issue, the price at which the shares were issued and the voting rights attaching to those shares. If you need advice in completing these, 
The Government has published its response to last year’s consultation on replacing sick notes (medical statements) with “fit notes” and has confirmed its intention to launch them in April 2010.
What do the words in a contract mean? Do they mean what they appear to say? Or what the parties think they mean? English law offers a number of solutions as to how you interpret the words of a contract.
The provisions of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 (the “Act”) relating to the Data Protection Act 1998 are yet to come into force (although they are likely to come into force in early April 2010), but when they do, they will have the effect of toughening up penalties for certain offences under the Data Protection Act.
