News Europe
Service sector employment was broadly unchanged in February. Stronger job creation in Germany and Ireland was offset by accelerated losses in France and Italy and a return to cuts in Spain.
“Regional divergences remain a concern, with the contrast between the fast growth in Germany and the decline being endured by France the most striking in the history of the PMI surveys with the exception
of early-2013 […]Perhaps the best news came from Spain, which is enjoying its best quarter of growth for seven years, and Italy, where the rate of growth hit a near three- year high […] The upward revision to the February PMI readings, alongside the recent higher than expected inflation numbers, will rein in expectations of further action from the ECB” concluded Williamson.
Companies Face Clampdown On Environmental Crime
Big businesses found guilty of environmental offences could face fines of up to £3 million when the courts implement tough new sentencing guidelines in July.
New rules, announced by the Sentencing Council this month, are designed to serve as a more powerful deterrent to those flouting regulations covering fly-tipping, waste handling or disposal and environmental permitting offences. The guideline also covers nuisance offenders such as those whose cause noise, smoke, dust or smells.
Financial Services Firms
to the regulator’s supervision teams maintaining their focus on this issue as part of understanding how firms are changing their culture, further thematic work will be undertaken on firms’ performance management approaches.
The progress that has been made, and the further changes required to build on it, will only be effective in reducing the risk of mis-selling if they are embedded for the long term, and part of wider cultural change that places consumers at the heart of firms’ businesses. The FCA has also made clear firms should not simply replace bonus schemes with other performance management measures, which can put pressure on sales
staff and are just as capable of causing poor sales practice. In response to the FCA’s thematic review, Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said:
“It’s encouraging that banks have started to make changes to their sales incentive schemes but we agree with the regulator there is still much work to be done to reform the culture across the industry.
“We want to see the FCA and the new professional banking standards body help to bring about a big change in banking, so that customers - not sales - come first. We expect strong action to be taken against any firms or individuals found breaching the rules.”
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Environment law specialists at law firm Pinsent Masons say the new criteria means large organisations with a turnover of £50 million and over may be fined up to £3million for a deliberate ‘category one’ serious environmental crime. Levels of
fines for non-deliberate offences by large organisations will also increase significantly.
Energy and environment lawyer at Pinsent Masons, Ellie Watson, says: “The new framework encourages the courts to make use of the highest level of fines for some of the more serious offences. It is critical that all of these large organisations with potential environmental impacts - of which there will be many given the relatively low threshold of £50 million - understand the new structure and review internal processes to limit any potential exposure to enforcement action.
“It is often said that an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. From July it will be even more important for businesses to have in place up- to-date and effective incident management and environment
response procedures. This will not only help ensure that incidents do not occur in the first place but also allow effective mitigation to be put in place at the earliest opportunity which can also be taken into account by the courts in arriving at a proportionate level of fine. Businesses would also be well-advised to review the contractual arrangements that they have in place with any sub-contractors as part and parcel of such a precautionary approach.
“The penalty regime will be more stringent but also far more flexible, giving courts the ability to impose higher fines deemed to be proportionate to the company’s turnover. This brings the need for robust control of procedures and processes into sharp focus as regulators will come down much harder on offenders.”
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