News

May 11, 2012

Weekly round-up - 11 May

May 26 deadline for Cookie compliance

The Information Commissioner’s Office will start to enforce the changes to the cookie law on 26 May 2012 — a year after website owners were warned to get their house in order and given time to comply. Any organisation or business that uses cookies on its websites must take steps to obtain consent for its cookie use. Failure to comply could result in fines of up to £500,000.

• Free Coping with EU cookie laws guide

HMRC gives online sellers one month to register for tax opportunity

Online traders who haven’t paid all the tax they owe have one month left to take part in an opportunity offered by HMRC to get their tax affairs in order on the best terms available. Under the e-Markets Disclosure Facility, online traders who come forward before 14 June and pay the tax, duties and interest they owe can benefit from lower penalties than those who wait for HMRC to catch up with them.

No more nine to five, thanks to email and mobile phones
According to a new survey conducted by Forbes Insights and advertising agency Gyro, the lines between work and personal life are blurring. 98% of respondents said they regularly dealt with work issues via email outside of the office. And 52% said they received information related to the job “non-stop”. But the survey also showed that 84% of respondents felt "empowered" by the continual flow of work information.

• Mobile working: The tasks I save for the train

UK manufacturing output rises by 0.9% in March
UK manufacturing bounced back in March by 0.9% after a steep drop of 1.1% in February. The recovery was led by strongly-performing sectors such as chemicals, transport equipment, computer and electronics, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Increase in number of UK engineering firms exporting
Research carried out in the manufacturing sector by the EEF (Engineering Employers Federation) and funded by RBS, shows exports in the sector have grown by 36% since 2009, with similar growth forecasts for 2012. Nearly 65% of respondents reported an increase in total export sales over the past 12 months, with nearly a fifth seeing growth of more than 20%.

UK SMEs spend £1.6bn on software and SaaS in 2011
UK small firms spent almost £1.6bn on business application software and SaaS (Software as a Service) in 2011, according to a report from analysts Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) and it predicts the SME market for these services will grow to over £2.1bn by 2015.