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Setting up a business involves complying with a range of legal requirements. Find out which ones apply to you and your new enterprise.

What particular regulations do specific types of business (such as a hotel, or a printer, or a taxi firm) need to follow? We explain some of the key legal issues to consider for 200 types of business.

While poor governance can bring serious legal consequences, the law can also protect business owners and managers and help to prevent conflict.

Whether you want to raise finance, join forces with someone else, buy or sell a business, it pays to be aware of the legal implications.

From pay, hours and time off to discipline, grievance and hiring and firing employees, find out about your legal responsibilities as an employer.

Marketing matters. Marketing drives sales for businesses of all sizes by ensuring that customers think of their brand when they want to buy.

Commercial disputes can prove time-consuming, stressful and expensive, but having robust legal agreements can help to prevent them from occurring.

Whether your business owns or rents premises, your legal liabilities can be substantial. Commercial property law is complex, but you can avoid common pitfalls.

With information and sound advice, living up to your legal responsibilities to safeguard your employees, customers and visitors need not be difficult or costly.

As information technology continues to evolve, legislation must also change. It affects everything from data protection and online selling to internet policies for employees.

Intellectual property (IP) isn't solely relevant to larger businesses or those involved in developing innovative new products: all products have IP.

Knowing how and when you plan to sell or relinquish control of your business can help you to make better decisions and achieve the best possible outcome.

From bereavement, wills, inheritance, separation and divorce to selling a house, personal injury and traffic offences, learn more about your personal legal rights.

Renewed calls for ethnicity pay gap reporting

23 June 2020

Mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for businesses will be debated in Parliament after a petition attracted more than 100,000 signatures.

The petition comes as prime minister Boris Johnson announced a new inquiry into racial inequality in the UK. However, questions are being asked about why recommendations from previous reviews have not been implemented. It is over three years since Tory peer Ruby McGregor-Smith conducted a review that recommended that companies should be compelled to publish data on how ethnically diverse they are by pay band.

The government department for business (BEIS) conducted a consultation into ethnicity pay reporting in 2018 but it has yet to publish the results. Office for National Statistics (ONS) data from 2019 suggests that white workers were paid 3.8% more than all other ethnic groups.

Baroness McGregor-Smith, who is president of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), told the Financial Times that "The big gap is ethnicity pay reporting … and that needs to change".

Frances O'Grady, TUC general secretary, said: "The government must place a legal requirement on employers to identify and tackle the barriers facing BME workers. We need much greater transparency and accountability. As Baroness McGregor-Smith rightly observed 'daylight is the best disinfectant'."

A new study by Instant Offices has found that diversity and inclusivity within British workplaces is "severely lacking". Its findings show that only 56% of British employees believe employers are trying to be more diverse and inclusive.

Lucinda Pullinger, global head of HR at The Instant Group, said: "It's important to remember that a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture are different. If you have diversity, you don't necessarily have inclusion … For things to improve, the focus on diversity in organisations needs to be on-going and measured."

Written by Rachel Miller.

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