United Kingdom enterprise law

In enterprises that concerned central social and economic rights, were "network" or "natural monopolies", for "public goods", or where significant capital investment was necessary, the UK law developed specific rules.

[24] In a leading case of Clark v University of Lincolnshire and Humberside a student claimed that she should not have received a third class degree after her computer crashed, she lost an assignment, and was forced to rush a new one.

[53] Two central features of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 were that section 75 required commissioning was subjected to competition law (i.e. CCGs are potentially unable to cooperate to bargain down drug company prices, etc.

This is controversial because (unlike New Zealand's Accident Compensation Corporation) claims require litigation, and substantial sums of money go to lawyers, instead of the person who is harmed and withdraws resources for other NHS patients.

For instance, in R (B) v Cambridge Health Authority parents claimed their 11-year-old girl should receive a second bone marrow transplant for myeloid leukemia, even though doctors said success was 20% likely and would cause "considerable suffering".

Lord Woolf MR held in judicial review that the promise generated a "legitimate expectation" that was "equivalent to a breach of contract in private law", which could not be unilaterally withdrawn, even if the Secretary of State was concerned about cost.

[64] Within the European Union, British residents also have the right to move to other member states for treatment and be reimbursed if NHS waiting lists happen to be unreasonably long, assessed by objective criteria.

[90] Most shareholders are asset managers, exercising votes with other people's money that comes through pensions, life insurance or mutual funds, who are meant to engage with boards,[91] but have few explicit channels to represent the ultimate investors.

Since the Credit Institutions Directive 2013,[95] there are some added governance requirements beyond the general framework: for example, duties of directors must be clearly defined, and there should be a policy on board diversity to ensure gender and ethnic balance.

In Bocardo SA v Star Energy UK Onshore Ltd, the Supreme Court did hold that a landowner may sue a company for trespass if it drills under its land without permission, but a majority held that damages will be nominal.

Under the Energy Act 2011 sections 82–83 the Secretary of State can require a pipeline owner gives access on its own motion, apparently to reduce the problem of companies being too timid to exercise legal rights for fear of commercial repercussions.

[158] Originally, the idea was that the regulator would "wither away" as effective market competition replaced any need for a state, but in a transition period prices would be capped through a formula known as "RPI – X".

[164] In practice there has been no possibility to abolish government involvement, and in law there has been consistent recognition that whether owned by private shareholders or not, energy remains a public service that is the responsibility of the state.

Following the Great Stink of 1858, where the River Thames had become so bad smelling that it offended the Queen and forced Parliament to relocate, Joseph Bazalgette began to build the London sewerage system.

Unlike other countries, UK national parks have substantial private ownership, but there are more restrictive planning laws to safeguard natural beauty, and guarantee public rights of way.

Private investors built railways with huge subsidies from Parliament, granting planning and compulsory purchase rights, and were only haphazardly held responsible in tort law for worker deaths, and damage to the environment.

[233] Each must have separate accounts and member states are obliged to run railways "at the lowest possible cost for the quality of service required",[234] although in practice this enables huge variety and ownership structures around different countries.

It was originally privatised and called Railtrack, and was meant to run as a regulated monopoly, in private hands, and be in charge of railway tracks, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings.

In R (HS2 Action Alliance Ltd) v SS for Transport a group of people opposed to the High Speed Rail 2 project argued it failed the consultation standards in the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive 2011, because there was a party whipped vote in Parliament for its approval.

In EE Ltd v Office of Communications the Secretary of State issued a direction to Ofcom to charge full market value for its annual licence fee in the 900MHz and 1800MHz frequencies and conduct an auction.

However, the company EE Ltd successfully claimed that in doing so, Ofcom failed to consider all its duties on promoting competition, being objective, transparent and proportionate before following the Secretary of State's direction, and would have to decide again.

[277] In Telefonica O2 UK Ltd v British Telecommunications plc the Supreme Court held that Ofcom improperly exercised its discretion in rejecting price rises by BT in its "Standard Interconnect Agreement" for mobile operators to use its networks.

The Court of Justice held that Deutsche Telekom has "squeezed the margins" (between wholesale and retail) of its competitors enough to be an abuse, and once those figures were proven, it was unnecessary to engage in some detailed economic analysis of competition's effects.

[282] Similarly in Telefónica SA v Commission the Court of Justice upheld a €151m fine on Spain's Telefonica for abuse by imposing unfair prices on competitors to access its ADSL broadband fixed telephone network.

[297] If licensees breach a duty of accuracy, Ofcom may require a broadcaster to make corrections or give a statement of findings, and can impose fines up to 5 per cent or advert and sponsorship revenue.

Gaunt argued the censure breached his ostensible right to freedom of expression under ECHR article 10, but Lord Neuberger MR rejected the claim because the programme's purpose seemed to any reasonable viewer to be no more than "to insult, belittle and berate" the councillor.

According to Alex, the world's top five websites include Google, YouTube, Facebook and Wikipedia, while Twitter stands at number 13 but occupies an important role in public discourse.

[322] The main sources of revenue for the government are taxes on labour, capital, trade in goods and services, and land, although the balance of these has shifted considerably in recent decades.

A considerable proportion goes to military spending and paying off the national debt, which primarily means profits for international banks that lend the UK government money.

It is generally thought that more investment in education, public health, clean energy, transport and communication infrastructure enable the greatest multipliers for future economic performance,[333] coupled with policies to maintain full employment at fair wages.

UK enterprises in the regulated or public sector, such as Greenwich University or banks in the City of London , compose 39% of UK GDP and 31% of the workforce, while private enterprises, usually incorporated under the Companies Act 2006 are most of the rest. [ 1 ]
Universities are funded by endowments , funding councils paid for by taxation , and tuition fees levied on students. Cambridge 's endowment, at £6.25 billion is the largest, while tuition fees have been abolished in Scotland and remain highly controversial elsewhere.
Almost all universities by law require staff and student representation in the governing body. [ 19 ]
Aneurin Bevan at a Manchester hospital on the NHS's first day in 1948. He later said that to get the hospital consultants to join the NHS "Ultimately I had to stuff their mouths with gold". [ 42 ] Today, the NHS has universal support and has among the world's best health outcomes for money spent. [ 43 ]
The Health and Social Care Act 2012 changes, and the private finance initiative have been opposed by protests and groups like " Keep Our NHS Public ". Since 2012, with more private money, the cost of the NHS has risen without better outcomes. [ 34 ]
The Bank of England acts as the UK's central bank, influencing interest rates paid by private banks, to achieve targets in inflation, growth and employment.
The largest UK banks are HSBC , Barclays , the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds .
Government ultimately guarantees the banking system. By 2009, the UK government had been forced to nationalise Northern Rock , Bradford & Bingley , the Royal Bank of Scotland and part of HBOS-Lloyds TSB . The Banking Act 2009 contains a mechanism to prevent a systemic crisis occurring from banker insolvency.
An anti-fracking protest at a limestone oil well in Balcombe .
The Brent Spar oil storage buoy is one of 470 platforms and 5000 wells to be decommissioned, as resource companies promised in their licences. Companies have lobbied for tax cuts, meaning that taxpayers bear the costs.
The Westmill Solar Co-operative was established by residents in Oxfordshire to generate community solar power. Solar panel prices have decreased exponentially. Every home or business can access the feed-in tariff . In 2017, fourteen 280Watt solar panels, and a 10kW battery (enough to power a home, and have zero electricity bills indefinitely) cost around £7500.
The Gwynt y Môr wind farm , is owned 50% by RWE , 30% Stadtwerke München , 10% Siemens , and 10% UK Green Investment Bank . It has 576 MW capacity.
Electricity generated ( TWh ) from renewable sources in the United Kingdom between 2009 and 2018. [ 156 ]
Loch Faskally is one of many reservoirs used by publicly owned Scottish Water . Its prices are around 20% lower than privatised English and Welsh water companies. [ 179 ]
Under EU water law drinking water, bathing waters, and the general environment, like at the River Wandle , must be kept clean and improved.
An 1828 cartoon of a woman dropping her teacup when she sees Thames Water magnified. [ 203 ] After the Great Stink of 1858, the London sewerage system was built under Joseph Bazalgette .
Agriculture covers 69% of UK land, accounted for 0.6% of UK GDP in 2010, employed 1.52% of the workforce, and generated £4.38 billion per year. There are 18.3 million hectares, or 45.2 million acres.
Tom Collins House Newcastle reflects modern design in council housing , and cost £42 a week in 2012.
While train fares have increased beyond inflation since privatisation, [ 228 ] London Underground fares under public control have not increased under Labour mayors, but increased under a Conservative mayor . [ 229 ]
Coal powered trains became the dominant form of transport in the 19th century, while oil powered motor vehicles dominated the 20th century.
Electric vehicles have spread slowly, starting with Low emission buses in London . Fully electric delivery vehicles , buses , taxis, would eliminate 56% of climate damaging exhausts, while EV network infrastructure is needed to electrify private cars. [ 258 ]
The internet backbone is old copper and new optical fibre networks that span the globe. In the UK, networks such as the publicly funded JANET , or the privately owned Liberty Global ( Virgin Media ) connect each computer's Internet Protocol address .
Ofcom , with headquarters at Southwark Bridge , licenses the electromagnetic spectrum , and the operation of most communication firms. EE , O2 , Vodafone , and 3 dominate mobile phones , and BT , Sky , Virgin and TalkTalk dominate broadband. [ 279 ]
The Aldwych in London was home to the first radio broadcasts , and to the BBC 's World Service from 1941 to 2012.
The most used web networks in the UK are Google and YouTube, Facebook, Reddit , the BBC , Amazon and Wikipedia. [ 303 ] Only Wikipedia and the BBC give voice to users in their governance structure. Facebook had, but removed the right of users to vote over privacy and data policy in 2012. [ 304 ]
Borough Market .
Government spending in the United Kingdom and sources of revenue, for 2019–2020.