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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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Employment Judge Frances Eccles, sitting at the Glasgow Employment Tribunal, held that the Mo D contravened the Part-time Workers ( Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000, SI 2000/1551 by subjecting Major Charles Milroy to less favourable treatment than comparable full-time staff. As a territorial army reservist he was paid a reduced daily rate and denied entry to the armed forces’ pension scheme, per a judgment issued on 5 August 2024 and published on 12 August 2024. In the 5 August 2024 reasons, Judge Eccles concluded the claimant had been treated less favourably as a part-time worker because he was refused membership of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme 1975 ( AFPS 75) and its successor schemes, and because a divisor of 365.25 was applied to calculate his daily pay, when contrasted with the approach to full-time comparators. Judge Eccles further...
The PPF reported that the surplus across the 5,050 DB schemes had grown beyond the £473.6bn recorded at the end of June 2024, signalling further gains. A pension surplus simply means the scheme’s assets are worth more than its liabilities overall. Shalin Bhagwan, the PPF’s Chief Actuary, explained that both liabilities and assets climbed in July 2024, reflecting expectations of a reduction in the base interest rate, anticipated at the time......
For pensioners aged over 66, the state pension could climb by £517 from April 2024, provided the data continues to indicate figures at the same level as before. The triple lock raises the state pension each April by applying the highest of average earnings growth, inflation, or 2.5%, whichever measure turns out to be the highest reading. According to figures released by the Office for National Statistics ( ONS) on 13 August 2024, earnings rose by 4.5% between April 2024 and June when set against the corresponding period in 2023......
Defined benefit ( DB) pension schemes Defined benefit ( DB) pension schemes at the biggest 40 charities across England and Wales have recorded an average 20% improvement in funding since 2019, the firm’s yearly report reveals, as detailed in the report. This comes as annual charity revenues have climbed to £15bn, from £12.6bn five years prior, over the same period. Stronger income and pension positions may prompt more organisations to potentially implement further significant alterations to their pension set‑ups. This is notwithstanding DB arrangements contending with financial market turbulence, Hymans Robertson notes. ‘ Many charities are now genuinely in a position to explore buying out their DB pension scheme with an insurer,’ said Heather Allingham, actuary and head of pensions consulting for charities at Hymans Robertson. Where a pension plan is fully funded, the returns generated by its assets are adequate to cover the...
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......
Data released on 7 August 2024 relates to the opening quarter of the 2024/25 tax year. Specialists report that the cumulative cost of overtaxation has climbed to almost £1.3bn since pension freedoms were brought in by the government in 2015. These provisions permit members of pension schemes aged 55 and above to withdraw a lump sum or take flexible income from their long-term savings. However, an oddity in the tax calculation process means many savers must initially hand over more than they actually owe when accessing their pension pots for the first time......
The FCA launched a consultation on 8 August 2024 setting out proposals for a new value for money ( VFM) framework, enabling pension providers to judge their schemes against measures such as investment performance, quality of service and costs. Sarah Pritchard, an executive director at the FCA, highlighted that Sixteen million people save for retirement through defined contribution pension schemes and stressed the need to prioritise long-term value rather than simply costs and charges. Developed by the FCA with the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) and the Pensions Regulator ( TPR), the framework introduces a publicly available colour system that grades investment design in retirement savings plans as red, amber or green. A red assessment would show a provider’s investment arrangement gives poor value for money; an amber grade would indicate the arrangement offers acceptable value but has scope to...
Chancellor Rachel Reeves suggested the approach could deliver improved pension incomes for savers. The newly appointed Labour chancellor of the exchequer spoke ahead of a Toronto meeting with delegates from the ' Maple 8', Canada's biggest pension funds. Reeves also noted, ' Because Canadian pension schemes are larger, they are able to channel much more into productive assets, such as essential infrastructure, than ours can'......
On 2 August 2024, the PPF announced that Kodak Alaris had been reorganised under its ownership and was now ‘performing well’. The consideration for the transaction was not revealed. The PPF added, ‘this is standard practice for pension scheme assets we take on, and, after a thorough process, we are pleased to have secured a good outcome for all parties’......
Administrator Trafalgar House warned that July 2024’s global IT disruption exposed vulnerabilities for pension schemes. An update pushed by the cyber security platform Crowd Strike on 19 July 2024 temporarily affected around 11 million machines worldwide. The turmoil led to thousands of flight cancellations and missed doctors’ appointments. Garry Wake, managing director at Trafalgar House, said episodes like Crowd Strike last month show consequences when technology breaks. Within pensions, he added, no chances can be taken with data or security; members’ life savings are at stake. He reiterated that safeguarding members’ money is essential for the sector, underscoring the need for vigilance and resilience......
In this issue: Funding and investment Taxation Scheme governance Pension Protection Fund Members and benefits Public sector pensions Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Funding and investment Chancellor urges UK pension schemes to back the UK economy and invest to secure stronger returns for savers Chancellor Rachel Reeves urged pension funds to ‘learn lessons from the Canadian model and fire up the UK economy’ while chairing a roundtable with the so-called ‘ Maple 8’ Canadian retirement funds in Toronto on 7 August 2024, a group that has channelled billions of pounds into the UK in recent years. She will ask them to keep backing Britain and to bring back insights on how merging pension schemes into larger vehicles can support investment in productive assets, including essential infrastructure and fast-growing companies, and other high-growth businesses back in Britain. The discussion forms part of intensive industry engagement underpinning the landmark review of pension fund...
Been London Design Ltd v Pensions Regulator [2024] UKFTT 569 ( GRC) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling will aid advisers supporting clients who failed to see or respond to t PR correspondence, leading to an FPN being issued by t PR. It forms part of a growing body of recent FTT decisions censuring t PR’s conduct of penalty notice reviews under the Pensions Act 2008. Taken together, this judgment and others indicate that the FTT views t PR as adopting an unduly narrow perspective during reviews, with the consequence that it frequently confirms its own choice to issue an FPN simply because, on paper, non-compliance justified the notice. Where an employer has, in truth, not received the required notices, that approach does not address the real issue. The case is also striking for criticism directed not only at the review...
Barry O' Dwyer, group chief executive officer at the insurer On 2 August 2024, O' Dwyer urged the government not to regard the UK's pensions industry solely as a growth engine. He noted that with about £3trn invested in UK pensions, it is reasonable to see the sector as capable of making a strong contribution to UK economic performance. However, he emphasised that the core duty of pensions is to fund customers' retirement... In July, Chancellor Rachel Reeves began the first phase of her government's pensions review, aimed at securing greater investment from the defined contribution sector into the economy......
The consultancy polled over 210 UK DC retirement savings schemes, with total assets above £60bn and over one million members in total, for its 2024 survey. The study also highlighted serious shortcomings in how these schemes are managed and planned across these areas, and nearly half—47%—of participants indicated they are weighing alterations to their DC arrangements, the survey found. ' Given the relentless pace of change across the UK pensions arena, distinguishing the important from the urgent can be difficult, and shifting from merely ticking regulatory boxes to concentrating on the work that best enhances outcomes for DC savers is essential,' said Ben Roe, senior partner at Aon......
Judgment and case digest: Virgin Media Ltd v NTL Pension Trustees II Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 843, [2024] All ER ( D) 118 ( Jul) Background: Ensuring that contracted out schemes remain sufficiently generous From 6 April 1997 to 5 April 2016, certain salary-related schemes could contract out, meaning members did not accrue some State Pension rights and both they and their employers paid reduced national insurance contributions. In return, those schemes had to offer benefits at least matching a prescribed ‘reference scheme’, serving as broad compensation for the State Pension foregone. Where a scheme first contracted out on or after 6 April 1997, the scheme actuary demonstrated adequacy by certifying that the reference scheme test was satisfied. After that point, and broadly every three years, the actuary had to revisit this forward-looking...
HMRC figures released on 31 July 2024 reveal that 2.6 million individuals have to date taken a flexible pension payment, with 43% aged under 60 and 28% aged 64 or below. Just Group reported that nearly two-thirds of the £83bn drawn via flexible payments since pension freedom rules were introduced in 2015 has been taken by those under 65. Stephen Lowe, group communications director at the retirement savings firm, warned that savers should handle withdrawals carefully and with caution......
Future Growth Capital On 31 July 2024, the long‑term savings and retirement business, together with the global investment manager, announced their joint venture, Future Growth Capital, which intends to direct capital into expanding firms that are not listed on the stock market. They said the initiative will be the first private market investment manager to be set up in the UK to advance the objectives of the Mansion House Compact—an agreement tabled by the previous government with the retirement savings sector that saw pensions firms pledge to allocate a minimum of 5% of defined contribution funds to unlisted equities by 2030. Phoenix and Schroders added that a core priority is investing on behalf of pension savers to build the UK businesses ‘of the future’. It will also invest across global private markets......
Original news Mr R ( CAS-69733- Y8D0)—22 March 2024 Summary The DPO dismissed a complaint about the level of charges applied to a personal pension and the transparency of its charging schedule. The complainant had accepted the fees in the application form, and the amounts were broadly in line with those set out in a personal illustration he received before joining the scheme. He had also agreed to incur additional charges for holding non-standard investments, and the published fee schedules were not lacking in clarity. The DPO’s determination serves as a reminder that pension schemes should take particular care in how they present information. What were the facts? Mr R was a member of the City Private Pension Self- Invested Personal Pension Scheme (the Scheme), which was operated by Mattioli Woods......
NOTE: In Spirit ( Legacy) Pension Trustee v Alexis [2025] EWHC 2237 ( Ch), the judgment handed down on 1 September 2025 saw the High Court allow an appeal against the Pension Ombudsman’s decision in this matter. Specifically, the finding that Mrs Alexis qualified for a state scheme supplement until her 66th, rather than 65th, birthday was overturned, and paragraph 50 of the determination was set aside. For additional detail, see Case Analysis: A static statutory reference relating to State pension age ( Spirit ( Legacy) Pension Trustee v Alexis)... Original news Mrs S ( CAS-29191- V6G7)—12 June 2024 Summary The Pensions Ombudsman upheld a complaint concerning the payment of a state scheme supplement. The supplement was payable until the complainant reached her actual state pension age of 66, rather than age 65 as contended by the scheme. The relevant definition within the pension scheme...
In a report dated 29 July 2024, Hymans Robertson LLP argued that reshaping the existing pension tax relief regime could unlock more than £20bn each year for the new Labour administration to channel into the UK’s growth sectors. At present, the state offers tax relief on pension payments, providing savers with a financial nudge to contribute. Under this arrangement, basic-rate payers receive 20% relief, so £800 of net pay becomes a £1,000 pension input thanks to a £200 addition from the government. The policy aims to promote saving, yet a sizeable share is reclaimed when pensions are withdrawn in retirement, as that income is taxable. Typically, a standard employee hands back £150 of the £200 benefit through tax on their pension income. This cycle reflects how incentives are largely offset by later taxation ultimately......
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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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