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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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According to the consultancy, proposals advanced under Rishi Sunak’s administration for the Pension Protection Fund to serve as a consolidator for smaller retirement arrangements that cannot otherwise secure an insurance buyout of liabilities would be well received by the market. Although absent from the new Labour government’s Pension Schemes Bill set out in the King’s Speech in July 2024, the idea would aid trustees of smaller schemes as they evaluate long‑term endgame strategies, Broadstone noted in its latest report on settlement pathways for pension schemes across the pensions market at the current time......
Mercer highlighted three central problems: inadequate retirement saving, modest performance from long-term pots, and limited participation by savers. It called on policymakers to widen auto-enrolment in pension schemes and to lift the statutory minimum contribution rates. According to Mercer — one of the four operating subsidiaries within the global professional services firm Marsh Mc Lennan Companies Inc. — such reforms would raise future retirees’ living standards and strengthen the UK’s economic resilience. Phil Parkinson, the firm’s UK head of wealth, voiced unease about the system’s current path, stressing that many are putting aside too little to secure a comfortable later life. ‘ We are inching towards a cliff edge for pensions and long-term saving, yet there remains a chance to tackle these issues,’ Parkinson noted in the years ahead......
TPR called on master trusts, which oversee 95% of the nation’s defined contribution ( DC) workplace pensions, to adopt the framework early and ‘help us understand what succeeds and what doesn’t’. ‘ This will also help shape the legislative regime that will follow in the Pension Schemes Bill,’ wrote Nina Blackett, TPR’s interim executive director for strategy, in a blog. How value is provided to pension savers has been a regulatory priority for a considerable period now......
There has traditionally been a misconception that gilt stewardship is not possible On 27 August 2024, the consultancy noted that LDI managers, as significant investors in UK government debt (often via bonds known as gilts), ought to actively engage with policymakers to address environmental breakdown. These managers deploy hedging techniques designed to protect pension schemes from swings in interest rates and rising or falling inflation. LCP also said that gilts now play an expanding role in defined benefit pension portfolios, and that trustees should press their LDI managers to set out and develop a stronger, more robust approach to engaging with government climate policy......
In this issue: Taxation Funding and investment De-risking, buy-outs and mergers Trustees, governance and administration Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Taxation Think tank report urges the government to reform pension tax relief to plug the ‘black hole’ in public finances The Labour administration is being urged to revise £66 billion of pension tax relief to generate additional receipts and raise extra revenue in order to help close the gap in the public finances. In a report released on 26 August 2024, the Fabian Society pressed the new government to revamp pension tax relief, with the potential to raise £10 billion per annum. Titled ‘ Expensive and Unequal: The Case For Reforming Pension Tax Relief’, the paper set out ideas including a single flat rate for pension tax relief. The report noted that relief on pension contributions hit £66 billion in 2022/23, a 55% rise since 2016/17. However, £22...
Expensive and Unequal On 26 August 2024, the Fabian Society called on the new government, via a report, to overhaul pension tax relief, suggesting reforms could raise around £10bn annually. The report, titled ' Expensive and Unequal', set out measures including adopting a flat, single rate for pension tax relief. According to the document, relief on pension contributions climbed to £66bn in 2022–2023—55% higher than in 2016–2017—yet £22bn was taken back through taxes on pensions in 2023. ' The UK cannot afford to maintain such a costly and badly targeted system,' said Andrew Harrop, general secretary of the Fabian Society and the report’s author, in a statement. He added that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, should 'raise revenue while also safeguarding family living standards and sticking to Labour’s manifesto pledges'......
On 22 August 2024, Scottish Widows called on ministers to reform auto-enrolment and set out the following priorities: Reduce the entry age to 18 Lower the earnings threshold Raise default contribution levels Bring self-employed workers within the regulation’s scope The Labour government, in office since July 2024, has pledged a wide-ranging review of pensions, though its immediate emphasis will be on prompting the sector to invest more in the UK economy. Pete Glancy, Scottish Widows’ head of pensions policy, said the new government has a unique chance to move at pace and transform pension saving for generations to come......
On 21 August 2024, Standard Life noted that, while activity in the opening six months lagged prior periods, transaction volumes were beginning to recover. Across the sector, expectations were that 2023’s £50bn transactions record would be surpassed in 2024, with certain observers forecasting the aggregate value of deals could climb to £65bn by the year’s end......
By the 2027–2028 fiscal year, one in five retirees will be paying the 40% higher rate on pension income, according to data obtained by Quilter from HM Revenue & Customs ( HMRC). Of the 3.1 million affected, 2.7 million people aged 60 or above are expected to be drawn into that higher income tax band during the period from 2023 to 2028. A further 400,000 individuals will tip into the 45% additional rate, according to the wealth management firm, the company said. On 22 August 2024, Jon Greer, Quilter’s head of retirement policy, warned in a statement that frozen thresholds mean the count of pensioners liable for higher and additional income tax rates is set to rise sharply by 2028. The previous Conservative government imposed a freeze on income tax thresholds in 2021 to claw back revenue during the...
Share Action letter to HM Treasury Posted online on 19 August 2024, a letter to HM Treasury ( HMT) from climate-focused investment charity Share Action—co-signed by seven other organisations—warned that pension schemes can accept investment consultants’ recommendations without sufficient scrutiny, even though these services are not regulated. Calls have been growing for the Financial Conduct Authority to oversee the sector in the wake of the previous government’s ill‑fated 2022 mini‑budget and its repercussions. Share Action said in the letter that pension schemes typically employ few in‑house staff and therefore lean heavily on advisers, especially investment consultants. The correspondence, also endorsed by the Association of Member Nominated Trustees and Pensions for Purpose, added that most schemes lack the resources to judge the calibre of the advice they receive and seldom change investment consultants over time......
On 20 August 2024, the FCF confirmed that 200 members across the three Norton pension schemes would be able to access their retirement benefits by the end of the month. The compensation is being made two years after former Norton chief Stuart Garner pleaded guilty to three counts of misappropriating pension funds, which he used to invest in his ailing business. Those investments are estimated to have cost the retirement plans approximately £10m......
In this issue: Funding and investment Pension fraud and liberation Discrimination Public sector pensions Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Funding and investment Chancellor publishes terms of reference for phase one of pensions review Rachel Reeves MP, the Chancellor, has set out the terms of reference for the initial stage of the pensions review. First trailed on 20 July 2024 as part of the government’s pre-election manifesto, the review will be overseen by Emma Reynolds MP, the joint HM Treasury– Department for Work and Pensions Minister, and will centre on defined contribution workplace arrangements and the Local Government Pension Scheme. Phase one will take a broad look at investment and aims to share early conclusions later in 2024, in advance of the new Pension Schemes Bill being introduced. The second phase will commence later in 2024 and,...
Published on 16 August 2024, the terms of reference sets out the parameters and scope for the opening phase of its inquiry into the retirement savings sector, initiated on 20 July 2024 not long after the Labour Party’s victory in the 4 July general election. The inquiry aims to identify practical measures that might prompt pension plans to direct more capital into higher-risk yet high-growth domestic UK assets, including, for instance, infrastructure and start-ups......
Women Against State Pension Inequality ( WASPI) Women Against State Pension Inequality ( WASPI) said that Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds will meet with them once the parliamentary summer recess ends on 2 September 2024. The government has so far, to date, yet to issue a formal response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s report, published in March 2024. That report determined that the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) did not sufficiently communicate to the public the legislative changes to the women’s state pension age, which has resulted in many female retirees losing out financially......
On 15 August 2024, consultancy Barnett Waddingham reported that its so-called end gauge, covering pension schemes linked to the UK's 350 largest listed companies, had lengthened from five years to 5.4 years. The measure serves as a barometer of long-term funding outlooks for pension schemes. This shift arrives despite a £475.5bn surplus in total across the UK's 5,050 defined benefit schemes in July 2024. ' As at 31 July 2024, the average time to buyout for FTSE350 defined benefit pension schemes has risen to 5.4 years,' Barnett Waddingham noted......
Virgin Media Ltd v NTL Pension Trustees II Ltd and others [2024] EWCA Civ 843, [2024] All ER ( D) 118 ( Jul) What are the practical implications of this case? The Court of Appeal’s ruling is unlikely to receive broad approval. The proposition that ‘accrued rights’ encompass benefits to be earned through future service—a central plank of the court’s reading of ‘section 9(2B) rights’ in the Contracting-out Regulations, SI 1996/1172, reg 42(2)—may appear unexpected; Lord Justice Nugee accepted there was a measure of paradox. In practice, trustees of occupational schemes that were previously contracted out on a salary-related basis will probably need to reassess any rule changes made between 6 April 1997 and 5 April 2016 (even where limited to future service rights) to confirm that actuarial sign-off was obtained and that section 37 was satisfied. Where such confirmation cannot be shown, those...
On 18 July 2024, The Pensions Regulator ( TPR) placed the long-anticipated final draft defined benefit funding code of practice before Parliament, following holdups arising from the dissolution of Parliament on 30 May 2024 and the calling of the general election on 4 July. The revised DB funding code will apply to scheme valuations with effective dates on or after 22 September 2024, supplanting the current code, and has been framed to align with the Occupational Pension Schemes ( Funding and Investment Strategy and Amendment) Regulations 2024, SI 2024/462 (the Funding and Investment Strategy Regulations 2024), which took effect in April 2024. Sophia Singleton, President of the SPP, noted that the SPP welcomes the laying of the defined benefit funding code before Parliament at this time......
Farley v Paymaster (1836) Ltd, trading as Equiniti [2024] EWCA Civ 781 What are the practical implications of this case? By recognising that a person can suffer distress from non-compliant processing without needing to prove that a third party accessed or read their personal data, this judgment expands the scope for individuals to seek compensation for infringements of their data protection rights arising from a data breach involving their information. Claimants pursuing compensation for data breaches must be able to establish financial loss or distress resulting from the breach (section 13 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and Article 82 of Assimilated Regulation ( EU) 2016/679, the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation, Assimilated Regulation ( EU) 2016/679 (the UK GDPR)). The Court of Appeal confirmed that distress may stem from processing that contravenes UK data protection law, irrespective of whether the personal data was...
In a blog dated 14 August 2024, the TUC argued that closing the gender pension gap requires the government to broaden auto-enrolment into workplace pensions and repair the social care system. Research from trade union Prospect shows the pension gap between women and men narrowed from 40.7% in 2015–16 to roughly 37.9% in 2019–20. The same study put the gender pay gap at 15.5% in that year. Jack Jones, the TUC’s pension policy officer, noted the union has previously called for reforms to bring more low-paid and part-time workers into workplace pensions by expanding auto-enrolment, and for action to tackle the crisis in social and childcare systems. The TUC also highlights that women are more likely than men to step out of the labour market for family reasons and to work part-time due to caring...
In this issue: Investment Scheme governance Local government Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers PLSA makes recommendations on making UK growth assets more investable for pension funds The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association ( PLSA) has issued ‘ Pensions and Growth: Creating a Pipeline of Investable UK Opportunities’, outlining practical steps to foster conditions that enable schemes to channel more retirement savings towards attractive UK growth opportunities. It follows last year’s Pensions and Growth paper, which identified six domains where hurdles could be lifted, or where schemes might be nudged to commit additional capital to ‘emerging’ and ‘higher risk’ segments capable of powering UK economic expansion. The PLSA estimates that most of the £1tn held by pension funds sits in gilts, other fixed income instruments and listed equities. The paper...
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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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