The European Commission is proposing a new exception from infringement of supplementary protection certificates (SPC), which protect medicines. SPCs are national IP rights provided for by EU regulations. A draft proposal for a Regulation was published on 28 May 2018. This Regulation aims to amend Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 concerning the supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products.

The Intellectual Property Office welcomes views on the draft legislative proposal.

For further information, including a link to the European Commission Press Release, view the IPO News item

UK Research and Innovation has up to £50 million each for place-based consortia to work together, build on existing research and innovation capabilities and grow the local economy.

Businesses and research organisations that are located closely together can collaborate with local partners on research and innovation projects that create an economic improvement in a particular geographic area.

This is part of the Strength in Places Fund, announced in the Industrial Strategy white paper. The fund will tackle the regional disparities across the UK and grow prosperous communities.

A 2-stage application

The competition is being run in 2 phases.

In this first phase, we are seeking expressions of interests that set out plans for large collaborative consortia. There is up to £50,000 each for consortia in ‘seed corn’ funding, which is money invested in a project at the beginning with the intention that this will produce a profit.

Successful projects will then be invited to bid in a second phase. Individual consortia can get up to £50 million to develop full-scale proposals. Projects in this phase are expected to start in June 2019 and complete by April 2024.

Competition information

• the competition is open, and the deadline for expressions of interest is at midday on 25 July 2018
• there is up to £50,000 each for consortia in the first phase, and between £10 million and £50 million each in the second phase to develop your project further
• a business, university, research institute, Catapult centre or research and technology organisation can lead a project
• consortia must include at least one business and one research organisation. Other members could include local civic partners including Local Enterprise Partnerships, combined authorities, enterprise bodies and other, similar economic agencies
• briefing events will be held throughout May and June 2018

We have updated our application forms to include revised privacy notices following the rollout of new data protection legislation on 25 May 2018.

Which application forms are affected?

All our civil and crime application forms. Also, crime eForms.

Why do we have privacy notices?

Privacy notices set out certain standards which your clients can expect from the Legal Aid Agency regarding personal data.

Among the areas covered are:

• our requests for personal data and the way it is managed

• how to obtain a copy of the personal data we hold

• what to do if your client thinks standards are not being met

Will old forms still be accepted?

Previous versions of these forms will continue to be accepted in the coming weeks so that providers have time to adjust. But we would prefer you to use the new versions.

Show all clients updated privacy notices

Your clients need to be aware of the updated privacy notices. This is especially important if you are submitting the older version of the form.

It means directing your clients to the new privacy notices when you are collecting personal information.

These privacy notices are on the new forms and you can use the links at the end of this article to help you.

CCMS privacy notices

We are working on integrating privacy notices into the Client and Cost Management System (CCMS).

Until this happens CCMS users need to refer to the privacy notice available for download on the supporting guidance page for civil legal aid application forms. This was explained in our news article on 23 May 2018.

Why is this necessary?

These changes are part of a comprehensive review of our processes and systems in response to the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

What is GDPR?

GDPR legislation came into force on 25 May 2018 and is the biggest change to data protection rules for 20 years. The aim is to harmonise data privacy laws across the European Union.

Keeping you informed

Future updates on GDPR and privacy notices will be published on the legal aid news pages on GOV.UK.

These will include letting you know when the new CCMS privacy notice has been integrated into the system.

Further information

Updated forms:

Civil legal aid application forms

Controlled work application forms

Criminal legal aid application forms

CCMS privacy notice:

Civil legal aid application forms: supporting guidance – to download ‘civil legal aid applications privacy notice’

CCMS news story:

Civil news: use revised privacy notice for CCMS applications – GOV.UK article 23 May 2018

The one-year trial, for the 2018 to 2019 funding year, will enable more eligible adults to access AEB funding.

This will help to increase AEB participation and lift social mobility barriers to learning for those who would not otherwise engage due to course fees being unaffordable. It will also support those who have been motivated to move out of unemployment and are in receipt of a low wage to further progress in work and their chosen career.

The current AEB fee remission rules focus on providing full funding for eligible unemployed adults, young people (aged 19 to 23) with skills below level 2, and adults aged 19 and over, without English and maths up to level 2. Currently individuals who do not fall into one of these categories may have to contribute 50% towards the cost of their learning (commonly known as co-funding).

The new eligibility requirements for learners to receive full funding during the trial are:

• those that are eligible for co-funding, and,
• earn less than £15,736.50 annual gross salary based on the Social Mobility Commission’s low pay threshold of £8.07 (hourly rate in 2016) and on the assumption of a 37.5 hour contract with paid statutory holiday entitlement

To confirm learner eligibility providers must:

• see and keep supporting evidence in the learner file, for example, this could be a wage slip within 3 months of the learner’s learning start date, or a current employment contract, which states gross monthly/annual wages)
• enter the ILR monitoring code (363) for every eligible learner they fully fund through this trial, his is imperative as we will use data collected from this trial to inform future adult funding policy development

We have engaged with representative bodies, Mayoral Combined Authorities and the Greater London Authority, who have been supportive of the trial and it’s aims to make learning more accessible for the low paid.

The rules associated with the trial are in version 1 of the adult education budget (AEB) funding rules 2018 to 2019.

It follows the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) year-long market study into the residential and nursing care home sector in the UK for people over 65. The study found that there is a risk of residents being treated unfairly and that some care homes may potentially be breaching consumer law.

The draft advice sets out what the CMA considers care homes should do to comply with consumer law, including:

• what upfront information they need to provide to prospective residents and their representatives to help them make informed choices
• what they need to do to ensure that their contract terms and the way they treat residents and their representatives are fair
• their obligation to provide services to residents with reasonable care and skill
• what they need to do to ensure that their complaint-handling policies and procedures are easy to find, easy to use, and fair

The CMA is seeking views on the draft advice from a range of interested parties including care homes and their representative bodies, enforcers such as local authority Trading Standards Services and sector regulators. The CMA also welcomes views from residents and their families, charities representing the elderly and consumer groups. The consultation closes on 12 July.

The consultation is part of the CMA’s ongoing consumer protection work in the care home sector. As part of this work, the CMA has also today published its final advice on the charging of fees after a resident’s death following a consultation earlier this year.