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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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Law firms say investment advisers at financial institutions will tread carefully before backing exposure to digitalised funds under the FCA’s tokenisation framework, as they could be liable for any missteps. Yet lawyers warn that the real escalation in consumer risk sits within targeted support. This FCA model permits advisers to steer groups of comparable customers towards products, without the expense and hazards of full advice. The regulator has clarified that firms offering targeted support must only secure better results, which falls short of guaranteeing good outcomes under the Consumer Duty. Lawyers stress the nuance matters for both firms and customers alike today. That distinction may prompt businesses, via targeted support, to funnel clients into digital funds transacting on distributed ledger technology ( DLT) systems. Harming consumers Michelle Quinn, a partner at Grosvenor Law, cautioned that setting the bar at better, rather than...
This package of measures spans financial penalties, travel prohibitions, asset freezes and bans on exporting materials, goods and technologies that aid Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. Paused by the UN under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ( JCPOA) brokered in 2015 by the Obama administration alongside China, France, Germany, Russia and the UK, these restrictions are now being revived by the relevant authorities. The Office of Foreign Assets Control ( OFAC) has already unveiled two waves of new entries to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons ( SDN) list to underpin the snapback. On 29 September 2025, the European Commission likewise moved to reinstate all of these measures—and additional ones beyond the prior scope. On 30 September 2025, the UK named 71 individuals as part of a staged approach to reimpose UN sanctions. It would be a mistake to regard the...
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation’s ( OFSI) annual report, issued on 15 October 2025, indicated that the enforcement of Russia sanctions continued to be the foremost priority, citing £22.5bn of assets reported frozen under the Russia regime—twice the £10.2bn recorded a year earlier. As of April 2025, the OFSI was managing 240 active compliance-related cases, with an expanding share not uncovered via self-reporting—151, up from 108 logged last year, the report further added. Giles Thomson, HM Treasury’s director of economic crime and sanctions, said it had been 'a year marked by significant progress in our mission to enhance the effectiveness of the UK's financial sanctions regime'......
At a London High Court hearing, Martin Evans KC of 33 Chancery Lane, acting for the Director of Public Prosecutions, confirmed the Crown Prosecution Service ( CPS) plans a UK programme to assist Chinese victims deceived by convicted fraudster Zhimin Qian. No further information about the scheme was available at once. Further particulars of the planned support have not been released, and the CPS maintains its position pending the court’s approach to victim redress within these proceedings. In written arguments, Evans added the CPS was not, for now, pursuing a civil recovery order, awaiting the court’s guidance on addressing victims’ interests. The CPS has moved to confiscate roughly 61,000 bitcoins—valued at around £5.1bn today—frozen in the UK’s biggest cryptocurrency case to date. In September 2025, at the outset of a London criminal trial, Qian, 47, also called Yadi Zhang, admitted...
In this issue: Criminal procedure and evidence Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Consumer protection and cartels Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Insolvency offences and Companies Act offences Local authority prosecutions Money laundering Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Criminal procedure and evidence Email caution offers a rare glimpse into SFO record-keeping. Disclosures show a Serious Fraud Office ( SFO) official urged investigators to avoid setting out case concerns in emails, highlighting how grinding disclosure disputes shaped the agency’s approach while it was under intense scrutiny over its evidence practices. See News Analysis: Email warning provides rare sight into SFO...
The episode was disclosed in a whistleblowing claim brought by a former investigator, which was unsuccessful. The case offers a rare glimpse into the agency’s attempts to prevent being swamped by the sheer volume of evidence it must handle, after high-profile cases collapsed owing to disclosure problems. Guidance issued by a senior SFO official in 2023—advising investigators not to set out every doubt about the strength of a criminal inquiry in email—does not seem to breach the organisation’s duty to disclose material that could assist the defence. However, white-collar lawyers argue that, amid intense scrutiny of the SFO’s disclosure practices, such a caution risked introducing bias into the investigation. Christopher Houssemayne du Boulay, a partner at Hickman & Rose, said contemporaneous records capturing the frank, unvarnished views of seasoned SFO officers should be promoted rather than pushed to the margins......
The CPRC minutes for 4 July 2025—held in hybrid form at The Rolls Building ( Royal Courts of Justice) and by video link—address a range of matters set out below: interim serious crime prevention orders; digital rule-making for OCMC/ DCP and the OPRC’s prospective remit; changes on sealing/service of claim forms; a review of civil restraint orders; and the impending Extended Fixed Recoverable Costs stocktake consultation. Note: the CPRC no longer distributes the supporting papers with its minutes; accordingly, no explanatory documents accompany this News Analysis as such. A copy of the minutes is available here: Minutes of the CPR Committee meeting for reference and ease of access. Welcome, apologies and introductory remarks (item 1) The record of the 6 June 2025 meeting was approved (see News Analysis: Minutes of the CPR Committee meeting—6 June 2025). A clarifying change to public question 13 from the 9 May 2025...
In this issue: Criminal liability Criminal procedure and evidence Appeal and judicial review Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Money laundering Other corporate crime and crime related news Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Latest Q& As Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Criminal liability The Public Office ( Accountability) Bill ( Hillsborough Law): promoting candour, transparency and accountability The Public Office ( Accountability) Bill, often called the ‘ Hillsborough Law’ Bill, was brought before the House of Commons on 26 September 2025, and sets out suggested reforms concerning both statutory and non-statutory inquiries, together with coronial inquests. Its objective is to secure transparency, candour and accountability from public bodies, officials and those...
What is the failure to prevent fraud offence? The FTPF offence, in force from 1 September 2025, marks a major widening of corporate criminal exposure. Departing from classic corporate fraud cases that hinge on proving senior management’s awareness or participation, this route imposes liability on a ‘failure to prevent’ basis. Large organisations—those satisfying any two of: over 250 staff, turnover above £36m, or total assets exceeding £18m—can be prosecuted where an employee, agent, subsidiary, or other ‘associated person’ commits fraud to benefit the organisation. The sole defence is to show that the organisation had reasonable anti-fraud procedures in place. How does the FTPF offence relate to greenwashing? Its relevance to greenwashing emerges from the offences it captures. The regime covers fraud by false representation (section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 ( Fr A 2006)), fraud by failing to disclose information ( Fr A 2006, s 3), and...
Christian Bittar’s 2018 fraud conviction for manipulating a key European interest rate benchmark remains secure following a review of the Serious Fraud Office’s prosecution, the agency confirmed in a statement issued within its Response to Supreme Court judgment... The SFO acknowledged in August 2025 that it was reassessing cases involving former traders after the UK Supreme Court quashed the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo on the basis that they had not received a fair trial. In contrast to those defendants, Bittar pleaded guilty to fraud relating to a key benchmark interest rate ahead of any trial, and his case did not go before a jury... In a statement dated 6 October 2025, the SFO’s Jason Williams pointed to the Supreme Court justices’ conclusions that, even with correct directions from the trial judge in the Hayes and Palombo matters, there remained ample evidence on which to...
Public Office ( Accountability) Bill What are the overall principal goals and intended purposes of the put forward Public Office ( Accountability) Bill legislation?......
In this issue: Criminal procedure and evidence Proceeds of crime Appeal and judicial review Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Cybercrime and data protection offences Environmental offences Financial services and pensions offences Food safety and hygiene offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Local authority prosecutions Money laundering International Lex Talk®Corporate Crime: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Criminal procedure and evidence Court delays soar as backlogs break records Between April and June 2025, the criminal courts in England and Wales amassed an unprecedented caseload of almost 440,000, with incoming matters exceeding disposals and a system hampered by long-standing funding shortfalls. In response, the...
WIM’s collapse ranks among the UK fund management industry’s most notable and widely reported disasters. Its repercussions still influence regulatory focus and the confidence and trust of investors across the market. See: FCA publishes Decision Notices against Neil Woodford and Woodford Investment Management over liquidity management failures in WEIF, LNB News 05/08/2025 32. Background Woodford set up WIM in 2014, unveiling the headline Woodford Equity Income Fund amid heavy publicity. At that point, he was widely seen as a star stockpicker, after substantial success during his tenure at Invesco Perpetual. In 2019, as anxieties about illiquidity rose and large outflows hit the portfolio, WIM halted investor redemptions. Roughly 300,000 savers found themselves unable to access their money, sparking public anger and intense media attention. The fund stopped dealings in June 2019 and was later placed into wind-up. The failure left hundreds of thousands bearing...
Initially, four trials had been set, yet the Trump administration’s Executive Order No 14209, issued in February 2025, temporarily halted FCPA enforcement, causing a short pause for all. Following review, the US DOJ permitted three to move forward. Among them, US v Zaglin—centred on a bribery scheme involving Honduran law enforcement equipment—concluded this month in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. US v Bautista, concerning alleged bribes to obtain Filipino voting equipment contracts, is scheduled to commence in October 2025, likewise in the Southern District of Florida. The case against Charles Hobson—a coal executive accused of bribing Egyptian officials—has been postponed to February 2026 in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. As these matters conclude or near, we reflect on the three FCPA-related trials from 2024 to pinpoint the themes prosecutors used—and are apt to...
Ministry of Justice ( Mo J) statistics – 25 September 2025 Official statistics from the Ministry of Justice show that open matters in the magistrates' courts were up 6% on the previous quarter and 25% year-on-year, reaching a peak of 361,027. In parallel, the Crown Courts backlog climbed to a record 78,329 cases by the end of June 2025, extending the upward pattern evident since the first quarter of 2023. Between April and June 2025, more than 30,000 cases entered the Crown Court, the highest tally recorded since 2016. The open caseload increased by 2% from the prior quarter, when it was 76,811, and by 10% compared with a year earlier, up from 70,893. The figures also show a record 19,164 cases had been open for a year or more, making up 26% of all Crown Court open cases......
The Data ( Use and Access) Act 2025 ( DUAA 2025) The Data ( Use and Access) Act 2025 ( DUAA 2025) secured Royal Assent on 19 June 2025, with DSIT (the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology) billing it as a new law that will ‘make life easier’. The Information Commissioner’s Office ( ICO) similarly notes it ‘offer[s] you an opportunity to do things differently’. What key changes are introduced by the DUAA 2025? Many provisions in DUAA 2025 are to be brought into effect by secondary legislation made by the Secretary of State. Commencement No 1, described as stage one, has already appeared and is unrelated to data protection. Stage three, scheduled six months after Royal Assent—ie, 19 December—will trigger the commencement of the principal amendments to data protection legislation in DUAA 2025, Part 5. An immediate shift took place on the day of Royal...
At Southwark Crown Court, the SFO intends to tell a judge that the US$7.7m taken from a former Petrobras executive is tied to the vast corruption affair that swept through Brazil. Mario Ildeu de Miranda, the ex-oil and gas executive, maintains the funds in his accounts derive from lawful earnings after he left Petrobras in 2003, when he set up as an oil and gas adviser. This matter marks the first appeal by the subject of an SFO account forfeiture order, placing the agency’s civil recovery toolkit under scrutiny. According to Nick Barnard, a partner at Corker Binning LLP, the SFO brings fewer cases of this sort because its caseload often features major probes centred on corporates, yet situations like this demonstrate a readiness to use these powers when appropriate. In recent years, the SFO has been successful in reclaiming criminal proceeds. The agency has...
The EU’s executive reported that Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden had not ensured access to data on the beneficial ownership of trusts and other entities by the July 2025 cut-off. According to the European Commission, as of now 11 Member States have yet to confirm their full transposition by this initial legal deadline. It added that phasing in the sixth AML directive is crucial to avoiding weaknesses in their financial systems and......
The UK’s largest bank is deploying automated systems to spot fraud under the UK offence that came into force on 1 September 2025. Among them is Google AML AI, built with Google, which scans some 900 million transactions every month across 40 million customer accounts. Jennifer Calvery, HSBC’s group head of financial crime, told Law360 that Google AML AI and other automation help underpin the bank’s defence to the “failure to prevent fraud” offence. The legislation exposes companies to criminal action where preventative controls are judged inadequate, and major lenders such as HSBC fall within scope. The regime captures businesses meeting any two of the following three tests: More than 250 employees Turnover above £36m Assets of £18m or more HSBC's multi-tier strategy Calvery said strong leadership, staff training programmes and sharing intelligence across the industry are just as critical. Before joining HSBC, she held a...
In this issue: Criminal liability Appeal and judicial review Sentencing Bribery, corruption, sanctions and export controls Environmental offences Fraud, forgery, tax and theft offences Financial services and pensions offences Health and safety and corporate manslaughter offences Insolvency offences and Companies Act offences Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Criminal liability Duty of candour could be transformative, but doubts remain The government intends to introduce a statutory duty of candour for public office via the Public Office ( Accountability) Bill, a step that could markedly enhance transparency across authorities; nevertheless, practitioners remain sceptical about whether enforcement will be sufficiently robust. See News Analysis: Duty of candour could be transformative, but doubts remain. Appeal and judicial review Court of Appeal issues guidance on appeals for defendants unfit to plead ( Kurtaj v R) The Court of Appeal examined a renewed request for permission to appeal under section 15 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968 by an...
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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