ICAEW BL Law in the professional context: practice questions with answers

Answer: D. Under the UK GDPR (Article 4) and the Data Protection Act 2018, a controller determines the purposes and means of processing personal data, and a processor processes personal data on the controller's behalf. A processor must act only on the controller's documented instructions under a written contract (Article 28). The controller remains responsible for compliance with the data protection principles, although processors also have direct obligations, for example on security.

Answer: B. Under UK GDPR Article 33, a controller must notify the ICO of a personal data breach without undue delay and, where feasible, within 72 hours of becoming aware of it, unless the breach is unlikely to result in a risk to individuals. Counting 72 hours from 10:00 on Tuesday 3 November 2026 gives 10:00 on Friday 6 November 2026. A late notification must give reasons for the delay. Where the risk to individuals is high, as it may be with unencrypted health records, the controller must also tell the affected patients without undue delay (Article 34).

Answer: B. Under ERA 1996 s 86, an employer must give at least: one week's notice to an employee with one month's to two years' continuous employment; then one week for each complete year of service from two years upward; up to a maximum of 12 weeks after 12 years. Ossian has 7 complete years, so he is entitled to at least 7 weeks. A longer contractual notice period would prevail; an employee need give only one week's statutory notice. The employer can dismiss without notice (summary dismissal) only for gross misconduct or another repudiatory breach by the employee.

Answer: B. Under ERA 1996 s 95(1)(c), an employee is treated as dismissed if he resigns, with or without notice, in circumstances where he is entitled to do so because of the employer's conduct: constructive dismissal. Following Western Excavating v Sharp, the employer's conduct must be a repudiatory (fundamental) breach of contract, such as a unilateral cut in pay, and the employee must resign in response without unreasonable delay. Constructive dismissal is not automatically unfair: the tribunal still asks whether there was a fair reason and whether the employer acted reasonably, but a unilateral pay cut without consultation is rarely fair.

Answer: D. Under ERA 1996 s 98 the potentially fair reasons for dismissal are capability or qualifications, conduct, redundancy, statutory illegality (continuing the employment would contravene a statutory duty or restriction) and some other substantial reason. Even with a fair reason, the employer must act reasonably in treating it as sufficient, which includes following a fair procedure. Some reasons make a dismissal automatically unfair, for example trade union membership or activities, pregnancy and maternity, making a protected disclosure (whistleblowing) and certain health and safety activities.

Answer: D. An employee with at least two years' continuous employment who is dismissed by reason of redundancy (ERA 1996 s 139: the business, or the workplace, closing, or a reduced need for employees to do work of a particular kind) is entitled to a statutory redundancy payment. Under s 141, the employee loses that right if, before employment ends, the employer offers suitable alternative employment to start within four weeks and the employee unreasonably refuses it. Where the new terms differ, the employee has a four-week trial period. Suitability is judged on factors such as pay, status, hours, location and skills; reasonableness of refusal depends on the employee's personal circumstances.