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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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Margaret, not her real name, was off work in 2022 due to stress and turned to online gaming to unwind. Ever cautious, she used separate email addresses, kept financial details off the mobile phone she played on, and never revealed any personal information that could identify her... Yet the man who contacted her on Scrabble Go in August 2022 felt different, less insistent. He asked for nothing, shared pictures of where he said he lived, and simply offered light, friendly conversation. By December 2024, using the name Michael Moore, he had persuaded her to put US$700 into Bitcoin through what she believed was a legitimate cryptocurrency platform... Within weeks, Margaret transferred £78,000—most of her life savings—as Michael pushed for further investments and service fees, threatening that she would lose the initial funds. With her bank accounts emptied and her pension pot gone, she was...
An Upper Tribunal bench of three concluded that Murtaza Imran Ashraf’s prior conduct — comprising procedural failings and insufficient openness — warranted the FCA’s March 2023 refusal of authorisation. The panel said these behaviours lay at the very heart of the case. Judge Mark Baldwin, who chaired the panel, recorded in the written decision that Ashraf accepted he bypassed the complete advice process in roughly ten instances, as he had not waited for the claimability letter to be pre-approved, and had instead shown clients a shorter summary of his recommendation and asked them to sign a standalone declaration page taken from a claimability letter. Those matters, the tribunal held, were central to issues before it......
According to Giles Thomson, the head of financial sanctions at OFSI, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation agency will impose its first monetary penalties for a breach of measures targeting Russian elites and their enablers at some point before the end of the year. Speaking at an economic crime conference in Cambridge, in eastern England, Thomson said that the sanction would be pursued via the authority’s civil recovery powers. He did not make clear whether the case relates to a business or a private person. The official described the move as the outcome of complex investigations undertaken since the invasion of Ukraine, over that period......
Su Carpenter, an Executive Director at Crypto UK, said members remain keen to seek Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA) registration, yet feedback from organisations that have completed the process suggests it can be a strong deterrent. Freedom of Information Act figures obtained by law firm Reed Smith show the regulator received just 29 applications between May 2023 and April 2024, compared with 42 and 59 in the two preceding years. She noted that submitting an application is a major undertaking in terms of resources, involving people and finances. Many still wish to, and plan to, apply, but there has been a great deal of regulatory......
Original news FCA fines Pw C £15m for failure to report LCF concerns, LNB News 16/08/2024 21. Background In August 2024, the FCA levied a £15m penalty on Pw C over its audit work on LCF, arising from issues connected to that engagement. LCF was a financial services company that offered minibonds to retail investors, positioning the products to individual savers. After the FCA intervened in December 2018 over LCF’s minibond marketing practices, the company entered administration in January 2019, causing heavy losses for thousands of investors and widespread detriment. Before administration, LCF had sold minibonds to more than 11,000 investors, with an aggregate face value of around £237m, reflecting the scale of its distribution. LCF’s failure has prompted various civil, criminal and regulatory proceedings, among them an SFO criminal inquiry into suspected fraud and money laundering offences, alongside other related actions. Pw C served as LCF’s...
In this issue Prudential requirements Financial crime and sanctions Consumer protection Investigations, enforcement and discipline Ex- Barclays executive loses appeal over FCA ban on senior job Regulation of capital markets Banks and mutuals Investment funds and asset management Regulation of insurance Financial Services Enforcement Database Daily and weekly news alerts Intraday news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Prudential requirements EBA updates systemic importance indicators for G- SIIs. The European Banking Authority ( EBA) has refreshed the set of 13 systemic importance indicators, together with the underlying data, for the EU’s 33 largest institutions whose leverage ratio exposure measure exceeds EUR 200 bn. The release also provides revised figures and data items reflecting recognition of the Banking Union and of institutions within the Single Resolution...
Accordingly, the steady flow of APP fraud disputes reaching the courts is unlikely to abate in the near future. Against that wider backdrop, and with the arrival of the long-awaited mandatory reimbursement requirements, might the judicial handling and treatment of APP fraud claims settle into greater consistency? In Larsson v Revolut Ltd [2024] EWHC 1287 ( CH), the claimant—an APP fraud victim—then brought civil proceedings against Revolut, an electronic money institution. They asserted that fraudsters duped them into transferring funds to five Revolut accounts, which the fraudsters had said were opened in the claimant’s own name at the time. Thereafter, believing, mistakenly, that they were buying shares in a company, the claimant sent money to those accounts. The accounts were not, however, in fact, in the claimant’s name, and the funds were rapidly moved on by the fraudsters. The claimant contended that Revolut should...
The Upper Tribunal ( UT) found that Kalaris, although acquitted of fraud in 2020, misled the FCA when questioned about Barclays’ contentious capital raising with Qatar during the financial crisis. He had sought the FCA’s approval to lead Saranac Partners Ltd, the wealth and investment management firm he established in 2015, by taking up the chief executive and executive director functions. However, the tribunal panel unanimously rejected Saranac’s effort to overturn the FCA’s refusal. In a judgment dated 24 August 2024, the panel — Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Anne Redston, Susan Dale and Peter Freedman — held that the regulator was right to deny approval after determining he had ‘acted dishonestly’ in two interviews with the FCA. ‘ We are in no doubt that if the matter were remitted to the [ FCA], it would inevitably come to the same...
Money laundering with fraud has been the most common of this type of criminality by value in the past six months, according to KPMG. From January to June 2024, the courts handled nine cases with a combined value of £128.2m, set against four cases worth £32.6m in the same months of 2023, the Big Four accountancy company's mid-year fraud barometer reports. The biannual barometer, drawing on media sources, focuses on crown court cases alleging fraud of £100,000 and above. ' Money laundering remains a concern in the UK because the complexity and sophistication of financial systems can be exploited for illegal......
The planned reforms aim to strengthen the appeal of the UK’s capital markets. They carry notable consequences for IPOs and secondary equity raises where securities will be admitted to trading on a UK regulated market, such as the LSE’s Main Market, or on a UK multilateral trading facility ( MTF), such as AIM. Market rulebooks set the eligibility thresholds, admission conditions and ongoing duties once on a primary MTF, and for issuers of debt securities on a UK regulated market. Background The consultation follows the adoption earlier this year of the Public Offers and Admission to Trading Regulations, which created the framework for the planned overhaul of the UK prospectus regime. In particular, it is proposed that: offering securities to the public will be barred unless an exemption applies, with a key exemption where the offer is conditional on the securities being admitted to trading on a...
Banks, insurers and other financial services providers face a tight deadline, with the FCA seeking feedback on proposals to simplify its rulebook by 31 October 2024. Lawyers caution that a pivot to consumer outcomes as the basis for oversight could inject intolerable ambiguity into supervision—pushing firms, senior leaders and whole teams to consider relocating. The FCA’s Consumer Duty, introduced in 2023, is setting the pace for this shift. Polly James, a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, warned that moving to an outcomes-focused regime under the Consumer Duty—while stripping away the detailed conduct rules that came before—would harm firms, prove off-putting, and heighten the risk of an exodus of companies and senior managers This outcomes-based model represents a reorientation by the FCA from prescriptive rules to delivering good results for customers of financial services firms—likely demanding greater judgment calls by regulated...
UK developments FCA publishes downloadable SDR labels The Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA) has refreshed its Sustainability Disclosure Requirements ( SDR) page to include labels available for download. It offers distributors within scope of ESG 4.1.16R—4.1.19R access to the investment labels and sets out their full terms of use. See: LNB News 19/08/2024 17......
In this issue: Authorisation, approval and supervision Prudential requirements Financial crime and sanctions Complaints, compensation and claims management Investigations, enforcement and discipline Regulation of capital markets Sustainable finance and ESG Investment funds and asset management UK Mi FID Regulation of insurance FSMA regulated pensions activity Payment services and systems Financial Services Enforcement Database Daily and weekly news alerts Intraday news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Authorisation, approval and supervision The European Central Bank’s Opinion, issued on 21 June 2024, regarding a proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council addressing specified reporting duties in financial services and investment support ( CON/2024/21), has been printed in the Official Journal of the European Union ( OJ). See: LNB News 16/08/2024 10......
Aiming to be among the most thorough filings on a single rule to reach the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA), the report sets a high bar. Specialists in the cohort, led by long-time sector figure Andrew Douglas, are examining scope, alignment, trading, liquidity, and takeaways from the US in depth. Called the T+1 Technical Group, it replaces a taskforce formed by the former government, which was voted out of office last month. Its mandate still focuses on how the UK Central Securities Depositories Regulation ( CSDR) could be revised to require a maximum one-business-day settlement cycle for trades executed on a UK trading venue in practice. The programme, involving a full 450 participants, epitomises a rulemaking effort propelled entirely by market actors themselves. Members come from 110 firms and bodies spanning banks, insurers, asset managers, hedge funds, clearing houses, law...
A scathing 2020 assessment of the watchdog’s oversight of LCF, which failed in 2019, pointed to auditors’ reporting duties as a partial defence by the regulator. Yet Elizabeth Gloster, the former Court of Appeal judge who headed the inquiry, firmly insisted the auditors’ conduct did not, at all, excuse the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA) for ignoring fraud warnings at the firm. The FCA has shifted blame towards the auditors. More precisely, it has singled out Pw C, the firm responsible for LCF’s 2016 audit. Announcing a £15m penalty on Pw C last week, Therese Chambers, the watchdog’s enforcement chief, said there were multiple ‘red flags’ that should have triggered suspicion of fraud. ‘ They ought to have responded at once. By not doing so, they denied the FCA information that could have been crucial’. That stance jars when read against the...
On 15 August 2024, the FCA apologised and, following the commissioner’s recommendation, proposed £1,250 to the firm. It will now review how it trains staff on issuing a voluntary requirement, known as a VREQ. The business’s name was kept confidential in this case. Where standards fall short, the FCA may ask a firm to agree a VREQ that, for instance, states it will pause taking on new customers until the problem is fixed. Such a VREQ is typically shown on the firm’s page in the FCA’s financial services register, which anyone can view freely. We accept, acknowledge and are sorry for the mistakes made in this matter by us......
In this issue: UK, EU and international regulators and bodies Prudential requirements Investigations, enforcements and discipline Regulation of capital markets Sustainable finance and ESG Banks and mutuals Investment funds and asset management UK Mi FID II Consumer credit Regulation of insurance FSMA regulated pensions activity Payment services and systems Financial Services Enforcement Database Daily and weekly news alerts Intraday news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary UK, EU and international regulators and bodies ECB publishes harmonised rules for Eurosystem collateral management The European Central Bank ( ECB) has issued standardised rules and frameworks for the mobilisation and administration of collateral within Eurosystem credit operations. These measures will come into force alongside the launch of the Eurosystem Collateral Management System, planned for 18 November 2024. See: LNB News...
EU developments What EU opinion may mean for ESG product classification In June 2024, the European Supervisory Authorities ( ESAs) issued their opinion and recommendations in response to the European Commission’s review of the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation ( SFDR), first announced in September 2023. The ESAs’ detailed input could wield significant influence over the Commission’s ultimate approach to SFDR review. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP’s international counsel, Jin- Hyuk Jang and John Young, together with associate Eike Björn Weidner, summarise and assess the principal recommendations. For further information, see News Analysis: What EU opinion may mean for ESG product classification......
Broker Gallagher cautioned that proposals to label schemes with green, amber or red scores—though simple for consumers to grasp—could, at times, conceal a degree of subjectivity within the scoring approach. This caution follows the FCA’s 8 August 2024 announcement of a joint consultation with the Department for Work and Pensions and The Pensions Regulator on a refreshed value-for-money framework. The watchdog aims to assess schemes using measures that look past a narrow emphasis on costs and charges, and instead take account of investment......
In this issue: UK, EU and international Regulators and bodies Financial crime and sanctions Complaints, compensation and claims management Investigations, enforcement and discipline Dispute resolution for financial services lawyers Regulation of derivatives Banks and Mutuals Consumer credit, mortgage and home finance Regulation of insurance Payment systems and services Fintech and cryptoassets AI in financial services Financial Services Enforcement Database Daily and weekly news alerts Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary UK, EU and international Regulators and bodies House of Lords confirms the Financial Services Regulation Committee and restarts its inquiries Following the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday 17 July 2024, the House of Lords reappointed the Financial Services Regulation Committee on Monday 29 July 2024. See: LNB News...
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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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