A bleak combination of the pandemic, Brexit and economic uncertainty is likely to lead to more workplace disputes, fights in the boardroom and attempts to impose less favourable contracts, but justice could be slow, warns Stewarts’ Charlie Thompson

The UK’s professional and business services sector, including accountancy and audit firms, is at risk because of the government’s failure to nail down future UK-EU arrangements on trade in services, a House of Lords committee has warned

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is calling on accountancy firms to prioritise increased diversity at the most senior levels of management, with partners being the least diverse when it comes to gender, ethnicity and disability, according to its latest report on the profession

The Alternative Investment Market (AIM) all-share index has returned to its 2020 pre-Covid highs, outperforming the FTSE all-share index, according to BDO

The former CEO of Grant Thornton, the billionaire brothers who recently acquired Asda and the head of GlaxoSmithkline are amongst those from the finance sector named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020

Marking the start of Black History Month, EY’s Zaheer Ahmad sets out what his firm is doing to tackle low black numbers in the accounting profession, including 30% targets for black work experience and school leaver recruitment

Faced with the Covid-19 crisis, forward thinking accountants have flourished while more traditional firms have struggled. Shane Lukas of AVN, the accountants’ association, sets out how firms can succeed while others fail

The government is to legislate for the mandatory independent scrutiny of pre-pack administration sales where connected parties are involved in the purchase

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is seeking views on plans to take a more agile, flexible approach to corporate reporting, based on a principles-based framework, to ensure information better meets the needs of investors and others

Business defaults and fraud could result in potential losses of £15bn to £26bn from the government’s Covid-19 bounce bank loan scheme, the National Audit Office (NAO) is warning

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) says Covid-19 disruption has seen companies embrace virtual AGMs, but warns some risk disenfranching shareholders in the process

With disruption comes litigation, including contractual, financial and fraud-related action. Elaina Bailes of law firm Stewarts pinpoints likely areas of contention and how businesses can avoid costly legal disputes

Despite the apparent clarity of the FCA’s Covid-19 business interruption insurance test case, there is still much that businesses need to do before pursuing a claim, says Menzies’ Paul Smethurst

In our regular Q&A series from Croner Taxwise, tax adviser, Laura Burrows CTA explains if an R&D claim can still be made if the revenue expenditure is not shown in the profit and loss account for the period the project ran

HMRC has published guidance on how businesses can claim the government’s £1,000 job retention bonus, available to employers who keep furloughed workers on the payroll for the next three months