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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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In this issue: Trustees, governance and administration Taxation Pensions dashboards Funding and investment Members and benefits Public sector pensions Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Trustees, governance and administration TPR focuses on expanding engagement with scheme administrators to drive better saver outcomes On 12 September 2024, The Pensions Regulator ( TPR) issued a blog highlighting the pivotal role of pension scheme administrators, current service pressures (notably heavy demand), and plans to widen its engagement with schemes of differing types and sizes to build a fuller picture of administrators’ challenges and to bolster outcomes that safeguard savers. TPR’s figures show that 47 of the largest commercial and non-commercial administrators account for 90% of memberships, and it now intends to invite around ten to fifteen of these firms to ‘voluntarily collaborate’. TPR also plans to reach the remainder of the market ‘within the next 12 months’ through a...
On 17 September 2024, the PDP announced that GOV. UK One Login would act as the identity provider for anyone using the dashboard service, the initiative designed to link savers to their pension information through online portals. The PDP also stated that adopting the government login—so people confirm who they are a single time and can then reach additional services—ensures those visiting the dashboards will not need to have their identity checked again at all when registering or signing up to use the pensions dashboard service......
The IFS cautioned that roughly five to seven million savers—amounting to as much as 40% of private‑sector workers—are on course to reach retirement with inadequate pension provision unless the government accelerates reforms to automatic enrolment legislation. Yet the IFS also noted that across‑the‑board rises in minimum pension contributions could be a tougher proposition for those on lower incomes. Nonetheless, numerous commentators continue to advocate universal increases to minimum contribution thresholds. Far too many private‑sector employees still appear set to end up......
Stewart Hastie, chair of the ACA, urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to handle any tax reforms with caution, proposing that the government’s pension sector review be used to forensically assess any adjustments. He accepted that chancellors may periodically revisit and refine pensions taxation, but emphasised that such shifts must be carried out carefully and with full awareness of the potential impacts on savers and pensioners, pension schemes and employers, all within the context of wider priorities such as enhancing retirement outcomes and fostering economic growth......
On 12 September 2024, the PPF indicated that pension schemes are likely to contribute roughly the same as in the present financial year, despite changes to how the annual levy is apportioned across schemes. The fund provides and pays benefits to members of defined benefit ( DB) schemes when the sponsoring employer becomes insolvent under its protection. Its financing comes chiefly from its own investment strategy, with an additional annual charge levied on DB schemes each year......
At the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association’s UK Pensions Summit on 11 September 2024, Nausicaa Delfas, TPR’s chief executive, said the regulator had doubled its number of investment consultants and expects trustees and schemes to have the ‘controls, capability and scale’ needed to deliver for savers. She noted that trustees and schemes “will notice a difference” in how TPR deals with the market to pursue greater value from now on. Her aim is for every saver to be in a scheme with sophisticated investment governance arrangements—supervised by trustees who understand what their long-term goals are......
In this issue: Pension Protection Fund ( PPF) Investment Retirement options Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Pension Protection Fund ( PPF) PPF publishes consultation on the 2025/26 levy In a consultation document dated 12 September 2024, the PPF sets out: a levy forecast for 2025/26 of £100m (unchanged from 2024/25, the lowest to date and aligned with last year’s consulted approach) methodology adjustments to continue spreading the levy’s cost across a broad pool of risk-based payers, rather than allowing the burden to become concentrated on a smaller cohort. Specifically, the PPF would (i) cut the levy scaling factor so it does not collect more than the planned £100 million, (ii) raise the scheme-based levy multiplier to maximise utilisation of the scheme-based levy, and (iii) increase the asset and liability stresses applied to two...
On 10 September 2024, the Pension Protection Fund stated that, at the end of August 2024, the combined surplus for the country’s 5,000 defined benefit retirement savings plans was £475bn, compared with a surplus of £475.5bn recorded at the end of July 2024. Such a surplus shows that assets within the savings plans are worth more than liabilities they must meet. According to Shalin Bhagwan, the fund’s chief actuary, outlook remains ‘relatively stable’, notwithstanding the slight dip......
The Institute for Fiscal Studies ( IFS) stated 8 September 2024 that a revised form of automatic enrolment, akin to arrangements used in the contracted employment sector, ought to be among the options for Parliament to weigh. According to the IFS, just 20% of self-employed people earning above £10,000 are contributing to a private pension, in contrast with over 80% of contracted employees earning above the same level. Laurence O’ Brien, a research economist at the IFS, said successive governments have worked hard to introduce automatic enrolment for employees to make saving for retirement simpler, and that these efforts have been notably successful......
New Financial report On 5 September 2024, New Financial reported that UK pension funds’ exposure to British shares in 2024 has slipped to 4.4%, down from 6.1% a year earlier. This is below the global average of 10.1%, and only Canada, Norway and the Netherlands commit a smaller portion to their domestic equities. The London-based think tank produced the study in collaboration with the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce, a group that works to enhance and promote the growth of capital markets in the UK. Over the last 25 years, UK pension funds have progressively reduced their holdings of domestic shares. Corporate defined benefit plans now allocate just 1.4% to UK equities, while public-sector schemes put around 9% into the market, the report noted......
Pw C’s report noted that fresh players joining the market have left insurers better placed to satisfy the sharp uptick in demand from retirement savings schemes for bulk annuity arrangements, across the market at present. Funding positions at defined benefit pension schemes have hit unprecedented highs over recent years to date, driven by higher yields on long-dated government bonds, or gilts. Bulk annuity deals totalled a record £50bn in 2023......
Nina Blackett, interim director of strategy, policy and analysis at TPR Nina Blackett said trustees must pay close attention to the regulator’s new compliance and enforcement policy, issued on 5 September following a 2022–23 consultation, which explains how the regulator expects trustees to meet their pension dashboards obligations. The project, long hit by delays, is intended to help pension savers locate an estimated £26bn held across roughly 2.8 million lost pension pots. In 2023, the Conservative government ordered a 'reset' of the dashboard project and deferred by a year the point at which retirement savings plans must connect to the new service, now scheduled for October 2026. Blackett emphasised the compliance policy should not be viewed 'simply as a regulatory stick', but is instead designed to ensure trustees understand their duties in advance of the launch......
On 4 September 2024, HM Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government launched a call for evidence as part of the pensions investment review, addressing both defined contribution ( DC) workplace pension arrangements and the Local Government Pension Scheme ( LGPS). The Labour government wishes to explore the potential benefits and risks for pension savers, and for the UK economy, if the pensions market sees greater consolidation, with a share of assets gathered into fewer, bigger schemes. It is also considering the roles of different pension scheme types, and which are most likely to actively pursue new investment strategies that feature UK assets......
According to the Resolution Foundation, the typical pension pot required merely to cover basic living costs has risen to £107,800 in 2023–24, in addition to the state pension. The report notes this is an increase from £68,300 in 2021–22. The think tank estimates that a pensioner, on average, needs £19,300 to maintain a basic standard of living. That figure varies between £13,500 and £28,400 depending on housing arrangements and relationship status. The report’s economist, Molly Broome, said the UK’s economic backdrop has shifted markedly since January 2021, especially due to the ensuing cost-of-living crisis, during which inflation climbed to its highest level since the early 1980s, alongside higher interest rates, in the report as well......
In this issue: Funding and investment Pensions dashboards Members and benefits Pension scams and liberation The Financial Assistance Scheme Public sector pensions Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Funding and investment Government issues call for evidence on first phase of Pensions Investment Review HM Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government ( MHCLG) have issued a call for evidence, seeking views, data and materials from interested parties to shape and inform the opening stage, or first phase, of the Pensions Investment Review, intended to spur investment, build pension pots and cut waste across the UK pensions system. First unveiled by the Chancellor on 20 July 2024, this flagship pensions review concentrates on defined contribution ( DC) workplace schemes and the Local Government Pension Scheme ( LGPS) in particular. At the outset, evidence will be gathered on themes such as scale and...
British Broadcasting Corp v BBC Pension Trust Ltd and another [2024] EWCA Civ 767, [2024] All ER ( D) 54 ( Jul) What are the practical implications of this case? This is a useful and instructive, if—at least for the BBC’s finance department—rather dull, decision. Lord Justice Lewison’s judgment now is (or ought to be) the first reference point for appreciating how the courts approach the interpretation of pension scheme documents. Lewison LJ’s ruling neatly distils the leading authorities (from Courage through to Barnardo’s) and reiterates his earlier warning against digging into the archaeology of a scheme’s rules (see Barnardo’s). Most importantly, the court stated that the proper starting point—and commonly the finishing point—is the ordinary meaning of the disputed wording, assessed in its context. Context is pivotal and may mean that particular expressions (eg ‘interests’) carry different meanings in different places within the deed and the...
Fidelity International reports that findings from its annual Women and Money survey, released on 2 September 2024, reveal 52% of women worry they will not have enough in retirement. The figures further indicate that more than one in ten women, 12%, have reduced their pension contributions during the last year. Across retirement savers, average monthly payments were cut by £173, the data shows. Slightly more than half of employed women, 51%, said they were held back from putting more into a retirement fund because limited money remained after essential expenses, according to the survey of 2,000 adults carried out by Opinium Research on Fidelity’s behalf in May 2024, as the study reports......
Laker v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2024] UKFTT 568 ( TC) What are the practical implications of this case? It is self-evident that legislative text only makes sense when read in its proper setting. Although terms and expressions are generally to be accorded their plain or ordinary meaning within the statute’s scheme, the surrounding context can, on occasion, require that words carry a specialised or technical sense. Here, even though logic, everyday usage, and common sense backed the taxpayer’s position, the framework within which the word ‘year’ was to be construed — notably the NHS Pension Scheme rules, the NHS Pension Scheme Guide, and L’s contract of employment — led the tribunal to adopt the interpretation advanced by HMRC. What was the background? Between 1979 and 2018, L was a consultant in forensic psychiatry and, for most of that employment, participated in the NHS Pension Scheme. L opted out of the...
WSW Projects Ltd v Pensions Regulator [2024] UKFTT 573 ( GRC) What are the practical implications of this case? The FTT’s rebuke of TPR for not emailing WSW, and for appearing more focused on levying a penalty than achieving compliance, marks a notable shift from earlier decisions. This stands in sharp contrast to similar cases where other judges have tended to accept that TPR may simply impose a penalty. Whether TPR will take these remarks on board and attempt to email employers to encourage compliance before issuing notices remains to be seen. Also striking was the tribunal’s ready acceptance of the employer’s evidence that the compliance notice was received only after the penalty notice. Employers still generally face the difficult task of proving non-receipt of correspondence, often without knowing why a posted letter did not arrive. Although the explanation for non-receipt in this matter was...
This update follows Dalriada announcing it had secured pension benefits with Standard Life for members of the distressed Norton Motorcycles retirement schemes, subsequent to compensation of £9.8m being paid out by the FCF thereafter......
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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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