Other aspects of business law

Question 1

What are the requirements for requesting information under the freedom of information act?

Answer 1

1. The request must be in writing
2. State the name of the applicant & give an address for formal correspondence.
3. Describe the information requested

Question 1

What are the requirements for requesting information under the freedom of information act?

Answer 1

1. The request must be in writing
2. State the name of the applicant & give an adress for formal correspondence.
3. Describe the information requested

Question 2

True/False: A public authority may charge a fee for a freedom of information request.

Answer 2

True.

Question 3

Though not required under the Freedom of information act, what should a request for information ideally specify?

Answer 3

1. That the request is being made under the freedom of information act.
2. The prefered form in which the information should be provided.

Question 4

What are 5 legitimate grounds for refusing a freedom of information request?

Answer 4

1. They do not hold the information
2. The information is exempt
3. There would be excessive cost
4. If the requests are vexatious
5. If the requests are repeated at unreasonable intervals

Question 5

What are the 2 catagories of exempt information under the freedom of information act?

Answer 5

1. Absolute exemption
2. Qualified exemption

Question 6

What are the 8 types of exemptions set out in the freedom of information act?

Answer 6

1. Information acessible by other means
2. Relates to matters of national security
3. Contained in court records
4. Covered by parlimentary privalage
5. Held by parliment and is necessary for effective conduct of public afairs
6. Personal information
7. Information provided in confidence
8. Prohibited from disclose either by legislation or becuase it would be contempt of court

Question 7

What is the public interest test and what is it applied to?

Answer 7

Whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption and withholding information outweighs the interest in disclosing the information. It should be applied to qualified exemptions.

Question 8

What is a ministerial veto in the FOIA?

Answer 8

Cabinet ministers in the government can overrule certain decisions taken by the information commissioner or tthe information rights tribunal.

Question 9

What is the 2 main aims of the Public Interest Disclosure Act?

Answer 9

1. Protect workers who make disclosures in the public interest.
2. Entitle these individuals to compensation in the event that they are victimised, are unfairly dismissed or made redundant following their disclosure.

Question 10

Who does the public interest disclosure act apply to?

Answer 10

1. Employees
2. Workers who are required to work for another person but are not self employed. Ie agency workers and casual workers.

Question 11

Who does the Public Interest Disclosure act not apply to?

Answer 11

1. Self employed individuals
2. Individuals employed in the security service, secret intelligence service or GCHQ

Question 12

What are the requirements of a qualifying disclosure of the Public Interest Disclosure act?

Answer 12

• It is in the public interest
• there is reasonable belief that a qualifying failure or malpractice has taken place.

Question 13

What are 6 qualifing failures or malpractices of the Public interest disclosure act?

Answer 13

1. That a criminal offence has or is likly to be commited
2. That a person has failed to comply with a legal obligation
3. That a miscarriage of justice has occured or is likely to occur
4. That the health or safety of an individual has or will be endangered
5. That the environment has or is likely to be damaged
6. That any information relating to the above has is is being concealed

Question 14

A protected disclourse under the Public Interest Disclosure act is a disclosure made in a certain way. What are 4 permitted methods of making a disclosure (who to disclose too)?

Answer 14

1. To an employer or other reponsible person
2. To a legal advisor
3. To a minister of the crown
4. To a perscribed person. Oe Health & safety executive or HMRC

Question 15

Under the Public interest discloure act, when may a person make a protected disclosure to someone who is not listed as a permiited method?

Answer 15

1. When the failure is exceptioonnaly serious; and
2. They reasonably belived they would be vicimised if they raised the matter with a perscribed person/internally
3. Reasonably belived a cover up was likely
4. Had already raised the matter internally

Question 16

What protection is provided to workers who make a disclosure under the Public Interest Disclosure Act?

Answer 16

1. Protection from acts that penalise or cause detriment to the worker
2. Dismissal

Question 17

When is an individual guilty of insider dealing?

3 to get

Answer 17

1. If they are in possiession of insider information about price affected securities and use the information to deal in or ammend/cancel an order for the securities.
2. Encourage another person to deal in the price effected securities
3. Disclose the information outside of the performance of the functions of their employment.

Question 18

What are 4 charactaristics of inside information?

Answer 18

1. It relates to particular securities or issuer of securities
2. It is specific and precise. Example ABC limited will soon announce increase in profits of 25%
3. It has not yet been made public
4. If it were to be made public it would have a significant effect on the value of the companies shares.

Question 19

When is a person an insider?

Answer 19

1. They are in possession of inside information and the person knows this.
2. They have obtained inside information and know that they have obtained it from an inside source.

Question 20

What are the defences against an insider dealing charge?

Answer 20

They can show that:

1. They did not expect the dealing to result in profit
2. They believed on reasonable grounds that the information had been widely disclosed enough to not be price sensitive
3. They would have acted the same without the information

Question 21

What are the defences against an insider dealing charge when disclosing the information to another?

Answer 21

1. They did not expect the person to deal in the securities because of the disclousure
2. They did not expect that the dealing would result in a profit.

Question 22

What is money laundering?

Answer 22

Exchanging “dirty money” and other assets obtained from criminal activities with money or assets that are “clean” and do not have a connection to crime.

Question 23

What are the 3 stages of money laundering?

Answer 23

1. Placement - Introduce money into finance system
2. Layering - Use numerous transactions to move money around
3. Integration - Completion of process, may involve purchase of assets.

Question 24

What 3 activities may money laundering take?

Answer 24

1. Concealment
2. Involvement in artrangements
3. Acquisition, use or possession of proceeds from a crime.

Question 25

What are the 3 criminal offences under the Bribery Act 2010?

Answer 25

1. Offer or receive bribes
2. Bribe foreign public officials
3. Fail to prevent a bribe being paid on a commercial organisations behalf

Question 26

What actions may bribery relate too?

Answer 26

1. Any function of public nature
2. Any activity connected with a business
3. Any activity performed in the course of employment
4. Any activity performed by or on behalf of a “body of persons”