Strategic Due Diligence: Integration of KPMG Practices in the UK and Germany

Until recently the UK was notorious for its illicit market in unlawfully removed art and antiquities from around the globe. Today the UK marketplace is operating in a very different climate. The UK has recently become a state party to the 1970 UNESCO Convention and is now introducing a package of measures designed to strengthen its treaty obligations, central to which is the creation of a new criminal offence of dishonestly dealing in cultural objects unlawfully removed anywhere in the world. These also include the development of effective tools to aid enforcement and due-diligence. Recent events in Iraq have also forced the UK Government to announce its intention to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention.

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Initial public offerings: evidence from the UK

Managerial Finance ◽

10.1108/03074350410768831 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 46-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Ashley Burrowes ◽

Kevin Jones

Keyword(s):

Initial Public Offerings ◽

Stock Exchange ◽

Due Diligence ◽

London Stock Exchange ◽

Public Offerings ◽

The Us ◽

The Uk ◽

High Level ◽

Alternative Investment

This investigation into the performance of Initial Public Offerings on the new Alternative Investment Market reveals that the expected high level of underpricing, that is usually associated with the risky nature of small, young and growing companies, is not supported by the evidence in this study. Raw and market adjusted figures reveal that IPOs listed on AIM at the London Stock Exchange appear to be only conservatively mispriced when contrasted to main board IPO listings in the US, UK and other countries. Due diligence listing requirements could be offsetting the otherwise risky nature of these small, young and growing companies. Finally AIM is discussed in terms of meeting its own targets and its ability to attract international listings.

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Inclusive Design as a Market Differentiator: An Industry and Academic Perspective on Diversity-Driven Initiatives in Built Environment Design Across North America, Europe, the UK, and Australia

Universal Design 2021: From Special to Mainstream Solutions - Studies in Health Technology and Informatics ◽

10.3233/shti210381 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jenna Mikus ◽

Janice Rieger

Keyword(s):

Built Environment ◽

Best Practice ◽

Grey Literature ◽

Inclusive Design ◽

Due Diligence ◽

Market Demand ◽

Environment Design ◽

Diversity And Inclusion ◽

The Subject ◽

The Uk

Industry and academic perspectives have become more focused on designing for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) over the past few years, both in general and particularly within the built environment. This renewed interest appears to have stemmed from a basis of respect-based ‘due diligence’ in 2018 to one of necessity in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought areas of difference into focus and exacerbated them, making it harder for people to live their everyday lives. In this paper, the authors seek to bridge the divide between academia and industry on the subject of Inclusive Design (ID) through their use of a combination of an academic and grey literature review as well as empirical research conducted with scholars and practitioners. These multiple methods focus less on the academic perspectives and more on how the industry has responded to the research and market demand. It clarifies nuanced differences among ID-related terms, provides best practice examples for wellness in the built environment, and identifies governing body guidelines (i.e., principles, protocols, policies) that have been enacted for ethical and business differentiating purposes.

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Oxfam GB Statement on Modern Slavery for the financial year 2019/20

10.21201/2020.6614 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sophie Brill ◽

Beck Wallace

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Supply Chains ◽

Corporate Responsibility ◽

Initial Response ◽

Due Diligence ◽

Public Statement ◽

Modern Slavery ◽

The Uk ◽

Human Rights Due Diligence

The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires organizations with a turnover of over £36m to make a public statement on the steps they are taking to identify and prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. Oxfam GB advocated for this legislation to be enacted. In this, our fifth statement, we share our progress against the three-year objectives set last year, which focus on corporate responsibility governance, human rights due diligence and inclusion of our country programmes. Due to the particularly devastating impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, we have added a section to highlight our initial response in March 2020, which fell under this reporting period.

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Due diligence and quality assurance in the UK

Food Control ◽

10.1016/0956-7135(90)90094-s ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 117-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

David G. Fidler

Keyword(s):

Quality Assurance ◽

Due Diligence ◽

The Uk

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The Duty of Care of the Parent Company: A Comparison between French Law, UK Precedents and the Swiss Proposals

Business and Human Rights Journal ◽

10.1017/bhj.2019.15 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (02) ◽

pp. 265-286 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Dalia PALOMBO

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

Case Law ◽

Parent Company ◽

Recent Case ◽

Duty Of Care ◽

Due Diligence ◽

French Law ◽

Legislative Proposals ◽

The Uk ◽

Parent Companies

AbstractIn 2017, France established a due diligence statutory obligation for French parent companies to monitor extraterritorial human rights and environmental abuses committed by their off-shore affiliates. Switzerland is also considering adopting a similar law for Swiss parent companies. These obligations are comparable to the duty of care that, according to recent case law, British parent companies owe towards their subsidiaries’ neighbours. This article compares and contrasts the newly introduced French due diligence statutory obligation, the UK precedents, and two alternative Swiss legislative proposals on the due diligence and duty of care of parent companies.

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Should Australia be Embracing the Modern Slavery Model of Regulation?

Federal Law Review ◽

10.1177/0067205x1804600206 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 46 (2) ◽

pp. 313-339 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Ingrid Landau ◽

Shelley Marshall

Keyword(s):

Effective Means ◽

Due Diligence ◽

Corporate Accountability ◽

Critical Perspective ◽

The Third ◽

Modern Slavery ◽

Labour Standards ◽

The Uk ◽

Worker Exploitation ◽

Human Rights Due Diligence

Australia is following in the footsteps of the UK and US and embracing the discourse and regulatory technologies associated with modern slavery regulation. This paper offers a critical perspective on this development. It begins with a brief account of the concept's rise to prominence, and discusses the political economy in which it is embedded. It then explores some of the advantages, as well as the pitfalls, associated with the frame, and its associated regulatory approaches, techniques and discourse. The authors raise three broad sets of concerns. The first goes to the danger of exclusively focusing on criminal justice responses to penalise and deter those who practice modern slavery while neglecting other approaches that may help address the causes of the phenomenon. The second set of concerns goes to the tendency to exaggerate the transformative potential of one of the dominant regulatory responses in this area: the mandatory corporate supply chain reporting provision. The third set of concerns relate to the implications of addressing issues of worker exploitation and mistreatment through a modern slavery and human trafficking approach rather than through other well established and newer regulatory means. To support the third argument, the authors compare the modern slavery approach with two alternate approaches: labour regulation and human rights due diligence. The authors emphasise the need for vigilance to ensure that the embracement of a modern slavery frame does not shift attention (and resources) away from more thorough and effective means of securing greater corporate accountability for labour standards in supply chains.

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Modern slavery and transparency in supply chains: the role of business

The Modern Slavery Agenda ◽

10.1332/policypress/9781447346791.003.0009 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 187-218

Author(s):

Colleen Theron

Keyword(s):

Supply Chain ◽

Supply Chains ◽

Value Chain ◽

Mandatory Reporting ◽

Due Diligence ◽

Voluntary Reporting ◽

Reporting Requirements ◽

Modern Slavery ◽

The Uk

This chapter explores how business is implicated by modern slavery, and the salient requirements of the UK Modern Slavery Act (MSA) transparency in supply chain provision, in the context of growing mandatory reporting requirements for business to report transparently on their supply chain impacts. It also examines how business has responded to the MSA. It concludes with some practical steps that business can take to address the risk of modern slavery in its supply chains. Among these are ensuring that top management is supportive of tackling modern slavery in the organisation and supply chains; understanding how these obligations fit within any wider mandatory or voluntary reporting undertaken by the business; putting policies in place; establishing robust due-diligence processes; mapping the supply and value chain of the business.

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“Are the new proposals for reform of directors’ disqualification requirements in the UK sufficient or cosmetic?”

International Journal of Law and Management ◽

10.1108/ijlma-07-2015-0036 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 58 (4) ◽

pp. 372-390

Author(s):

Norman Mugarura

Keyword(s):

Corporate Governance ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Data Sources ◽

Primary Data ◽

Due Diligence ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Content Type ◽

Regulatory Regimes ◽

The Law ◽

The Uk

Purpose The paper aims to examine the circumstances in which directors who fail to perform their duties and responsibilities with due diligence can be sanctioned and to evaluate whether the recent changes for reform both in the UK and European Union (EU) are adequate to deter directors from misfeasance or to cure defects in the law. The purpose of this paper is to articulate regulatory regimes for disqualification of corporate directors and the proposed changes to tighten loose ends in this area of commercial law. This paper articulates the duties and responsibilities of Corporate Officer and the varied context in which they are manifested in the UK. Owing to the onerous nature of corporate directorship, directors cannot passively sit in boardrooms or on their committees, but they need to demonstrate that they are hands on to get things done as expected. The first part of the paper articulates the current regimes on director’s disqualification so that it is used as a basis to examine the efficacy of the proposed changes for reform both on this area in the UK and Europe. The second part of the paper examines the proposed reform for change both in UK and in Europe and their efficacy to plug in law and practice. This area of corporate law is increasingly regulated by a number of agencies to ensure that directors perform their duties and responsibilities with due diligence. Design/methodology/approach The paper is structured in two parts whereby the first part examines the framework for disqualification of corporate directors and related issues in the UK. The second part articulates recent changes in the law on director’s disqualification with a view to evaluate whether these changes are robust enough to enhance the position of shareholders to ensure the company is well-managed for their interests or whether overregulation is inimical to the company by hindering directors from executing their corporate responsibilities with a measure of discretion. Findings The findings reflect that regulatory reforms should be evolved and implemented to strike a balance in ensuring that regulatory regimes are implemented not to penalise corporate directors unnecessarily but also to ensure that rules are respected. The paper urges caution because overregulation can inhibit corporate director from taking necessary risks (to be more guarded) to secure their positions. Research limitations/implications The paper was written on the basis of secondary and primary data sources often also alluding to empirical cases studies. It would have been better to carry out structured interviews to corroborate some of the findings of the paper. Practical implications Corporate governance is an onerous task, and thus, it requires corporate officers to exercise due diligence in execution of their duties and responsibilities. Getting the issue of corporate governance wrong often has ramifications for the company and respective corporate officers. These ramifications include not least penalising individual directors by disqualification from holding corporate directorship or the company being wound up altogether. Social implications Corporation plays an important role in the society such as creating employment opportunities, markets for goods and services, generating revenues to governments and the list goes on. Therefore, the way they are managed has important implications for societies and governments. Originality/value Even though the paper was written on the basis of primary and secondary data sources, it was done in a distinctive manner to foster the objective for writing it.

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THE TRANSACTION OR ACTIVITY MONITORING PROCESS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE CUSTOMER DUE DILIGENCE SYSTEMS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND SOUTH AFRICA

Obiter ◽

10.17159/obiter.v31i3.12324 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Mzukisi Niven Njotini

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Activity Monitoring ◽

Due Diligence ◽

Technical Application ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Monitoring Process ◽

Regulatory Approach ◽

The Uk ◽

Customer Due Diligence ◽

Ongoing Monitoring

South Africa has made rigorous attempts to narrow the fissure between its antimoney laundering regulatory approach and the approaches that are found internationally. A study of the FATF Recommendations and the UK Regulations evidences the aforementioned attempts. FICA is particularly considered a landmark attempt by South Africa into controlling the scourge of money laundering. For example, FICA encourages the undertaking of the internationally accepted antimoney laundering measures. These measures are referred to as the Customer Due Diligence (CDD) or Know Your Customer (KYC) principles. The performing of themeasures is expressly enunciated in FICA. However, South Africa seems to be lagging behind on issues related to the technical application or performing of the measures. Such insulation is made apparent by the omission of the express and lucid provisions that regulate the ongoing monitoring of customer transactions or activities. This omission therefore leads financial institutions (that is, banks) to broadly examine FICA in order to carry out simulated ongoing transaction or activity monitoring processes.

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