SUMMARY

The UK government recently introduced legislation implementing changes to the special administration regime for regulated water companies (“WISAR”). The changes are designed to modernise the WISAR and to better align it with the special administration regimes for other systemically important sectors like energy supplies and investment banks.

When an employer is insolvent and administrators appointed, job losses are often an inevitable consequence. In this blog we look at the legal obligations arising where redundancies meet the threshold for collective consultation, and the implications for administrators arising out of the recent Supreme Court in the case of R (on the application of Palmer) v Northern Derbyshire Magistrates Court and another.

When does the legal obligation to collectively consult apply?

On 24 February, the Government published draft regulations that, if implemented, will impose new restrictions on pre-pack administration sales to connected parties. For all `substantial disposals' (which will include `pre-pack' sales) to connected parties, taking place within eight weeks of the administrators' appointment, the administrators will either need creditor consent or a report from an independent `evaluator'.

Context

Navigating the road between regulatory compliance and business rescue

When dealing with a goods vehicle operator in an insolvency context:

Navigating the road between regulatory compliance and business rescue

When dealing with a goods vehicle operator in an insolvency context:

Richard Obank comments on recent experience in handling the collapse of UK arthouse and indie film distributor Metrodome Group and the challenges facing film distributors generally.

We acted on the pre-pack administration sale of Metrodome Group to 101 Films, which completed in August following a lengthy unsuccessful attempt by management to find a buyer.