What UK law and the regulators actually require of a restaurant that publishes.
A new Chapter of ITEPA 2003 can hand a restaurant the PAYE and NIC bill for staff it never employed — but only on three chain shapes, and the ordinary UK agency is not one of them.
In England the 8 °C rule may not govern a hot courier delivery at all — but which branch applies turns on an undefined term, and reading it wrong inverts the risk.
England and Wales scrapped the five-employee test in 2023 — record the whole assessment or risk a penalty. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, any licensed premises is caught.
A fingerprint clocking-in terminal turns payroll admin into special category data. Consent can make it lawful — but only where refusing costs a member of staff nothing.
A plate that counts as exempt packaging in England has no exemption in Wales, where it carries a penalty — and a straw needs a declared health reason, not a simple request.
A business sale does not move the alcohol licence, a death or insolvency starts a 28-day clock, and a stale “fully licensed” claim now risks a fine.
Existing directors get a grace period tied to their next filing — but one already overdue on 18 November 2025 forfeited it on 2 December, at real legal exposure.
A roofed, heated terrace can be legally smoke-free without anyone realising — risking a fixed penalty on the business and the staff member who missed it.
The old HMRC enforcement powers were repealed on 7 April 2026; their replacement is only in force for specified purposes — a gap that carries real financial exposure.
A false highchair or step-free claim and a disabled guest turned away are two separate legal risks, not one — confusing them costs a restaurant the right defence.
A defamatory review risks real bookings, but only one of five legal routes actually removes it — and none of them hand over who wrote it.
Staff enforce the line the restaurant published, and that line becomes the evidence. What a site says about dogs carries more legal risk than what it leaves unwritten.
