When the prospect of lockdown in the UK started to look like a reality, much was written and discussed about the flood of insolvencies that would inevitably follow. Whilst most office based professional service businesses could probably adapt with staff working from home, how could shops and restaurants possibly survive this?

The relationship we build with our employers is very important for a happy and functional work environment. However, things aren’t always so straightforward as disputes can arise.

A special TinaTalks that focuses on furlough and what the end of the scheme will mean to assist those of you who may currently have concerns as to the "next steps", as it were.

Making ill-judged decisions under pressure are perhaps inevitable. Nonetheless, anyone advising Liverpool Football Club on how to manage their reputation would hopefully not have recommended that they seek to furlough ordinary staff while its playing staff remained on full salaries.

Unfortunately, as a result of COVID-19, many employees are finding that they are unable to work due to workplace closures and an inability to work from home.

Work on site has resumed. But many Directors, Executives, Managers and Head Office based personnel remain working at home.

Headlines in today’s Daily Mail stated that “2.4M Caught in Covid Cancer Backlog”. It claimed that ‘screening checks, hospital appointments and vital treatment lost during the pandemic’ and was based on figures from Cancer Research UK.

On 20 May 2020 the Government published the eagerly awaited Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill which includes measures that have been developed over a two-year consultation period and others which are going to be introduced specifically to cater for the current pandemic.

Anyone involved in bringing possession proceedings at the moment must be reeling from the number of changes and the amount of new legislation that is being pushed through. You will find yourselves juggling new law, new forms, and new procedures at Court.

As 2020 passed the baton to 2021, any optimism we may have been harbouring about a gradual return to normality, as the vaccination programme began its rollout, was badly dented by another lockdown and the inevitable economic disruption that entails.