Government
Government covers the policies, regulations, and political developments impacting the UK retail industry. This section reports on government initiatives, legislative changes, taxation, employment law, and sustainability policy, analysing how they affect retailers’ operations and strategic planning. Retail Sector’s Government coverage provides retail leaders, compliance teams, and business owners with informed insight into regulatory trends and public-sector engagement shaping the commercial environment across the retail sector.
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Feb- 2018 -22 February
ASOS teams up with High Commission in Mauritius for modern slavery event
Online fashion retailer ASOS is hosting an event with the British High Commission in Mauritius today (22 February). The event will bring together local and international stakeholders to discuss the challenges in managing labour migration and agree a common framework for improving worker protection in Mauritius and beyond. Organised as…
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14 February
Primark fined £47,000 over transgender discrimination ruling
Primark has been ordered to pay £47,433 in compensation to a former transgender employee after they were harassed and constructively dismissed. The Employment Tribunal ruled that the retailer was to compensate Alexandra de Souza E Souza, who worked at Primark’s Oxford Street west store, to cover injury to feelings, and…
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7 February
Poundland Christmas Elf campaign banned by ASA
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned Poundland’s ‘Elf Behaving Badly’ campaign following the numerous complaints it received. The Christmas campaign was run on Poundland’s social media pages and depicted a children’s toy elf in a series of pictures that had sexual connotations. ASA said it received 85 complaints…
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2 February
MP calls for retailers to become more ‘Disability Confident’
The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, Sarah Newton, is encouraging more retailers to realise the benefits of employing disabled people. The government has launched a new campaign to get retailers to sign up to its Disability Confident scheme which launched in 2016. According to the latest official statistics,…
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Jan- 2018 -29 January
Fashion store East enters administration
Fashion retailer East has entered administrations, with 314 employees at risk of losing their jobs. Reports today said the brand closed 15 stores and five concessions stands in order to ‘off-load’ loss making shops. A tough trading environment, which has seen a high street footfall slump, is one of the…
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23 January
Waitrose pledges plastic-free packaging by 2018
Supermarket retailer Waitrose has announced that it aims to remove all black plastic used in its meat, fish, fruit and vegetable products by end of 2018. The black plastic used for food such as ready meals and puddings cannot be recycled as lasers used by waste processors cannot sense the…
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22 January
Co-op creates modern slavery job lifeline programme
The Co-op is creating a national scheme that allows employers to help survivors of modern slavery by offering them permanent employment within its business. The project is based on the Co-op’s Bright Future programme, which provides survivors with a four-week paid work placement leading to a non-competitive interview. If they…
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18 January
Retailers warned the Darwin £10 note is almost extinct
The Bank of England has warned that it will withdraw legal tender status of the paper £10 note featuring Charles Darwin at 23:59 on Thursday 1 March 2018. With six weeks to go, all retailers that handle cash need to plan and prepare for the change. After the deadline, businesses…
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16 January
Iceland pledges plastic-free products by 2023
Frozen food specialist Iceland has pledged to become the first retailer globally to completely remove plastic packaging from its own-brand products by 2023. The company plans to create a range of paper and pulp trays along with paper bags which are all fully recyclable. It has already removed disposable plastic…
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15 January
Card payment fees no longer chargeable by small firms
Small businesses will not be able to charge customers for using credit or debit cards, after new EU legislation took effect this week. HMRC announced that it will cease to accept payments by personal credit card as a result. The legislation, known as the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), will…
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