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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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Nausicaa Delfas, chief executive of The Pensions Regulator ( TPR), told an audience on 22 May 2024 that opening up consumers’ data and strengthening trustees’ data management would drive a healthier pensions landscape. Delfas, who took up the post in March 2023, argued that higher data standards should encourage master trusts to take on smaller savings arrangements, with consolidation meaning fewer providers serving a larger number of members. ‘ Compliance with regulation is compulsory,’ she said. She also promised the public would notice a significant shift in TPR’s enforcement stance—deploying large-scale, market-wide supervision to verify that schemes maintain robust, high-quality data and deliver value for savers......
Paul Maynard, the pensions minister, confirmed officials are examining the issue at this time. However, he warned the options currently under consideration are 'unlikely to solve' every difficulty confronting retirement savings schemes at present. He outlined these worries in correspondence to the parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee ( WPC), released on 22 May 2024. Meanwhile, there have been appeals for the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 ( PECR 2003), SI 2003/2426 to be revised so that communications from pension providers are permitted automatically in the matter......
Options UK Personal Pensions LLP v Financial Ombudsman Service Ltd [2024] EWCA Civ 541 What are the practical implications of this case? This decision is the newest step in Options’ prolonged bid, as an authorised SIPP operator and administrator, to resist claims by dissatisfied SIPP members who were introduced by unregulated third parties, made imprudent investments and lost their funds: see in particular Adams v Options SIPP [2020] EWHC 1229 ( Ch), Adams v Options UK Personal Pensions [2021] EWCA Civ 474, T v Carey Pensions [ DRN2076425] and S v Options SIPP [ DRN5472159]. Though adverse to Options, it underlines for practitioners how the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction departs from the courts’. The Ombudsman must resolve complaints by reference to what is, in his view, ‘fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case’ (section 228 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ( FSMA...
Nearly a dozen regulatory measures for the industry have been paused as the civil service enters the pre-election purdah period. Although the two main parties appear broadly aligned on many pensions policy questions, differences persist, and voices across the sector are urging concrete manifesto commitments. “ A key uncertainty concerns the destiny of the recently overhauled pensions tax regime, alongside several other unresolved ideas, including the Chancellor’s Mansion House package,” noted Helen Ball, a partner at law firm Sacker & Partners LLP. “ At present, it is far from certain how many will make it through the formation of a new government.” Mansion House Over the past year the pensions landscape has shifted markedly and visibly, driven by a strong political impetus, most notably, for retirement savings vehicles to channel more capital into growth assets such as start-ups and...
Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) Secretary Mel Stride Mel Stride informed a committee of MPs that he will not be constrained by what he termed ‘arbitrary deadlines’ when issuing his response to a report from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which indicated his department was responsible for maladministration. Campaign groups state that around 3.9 million women have been impacted. The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee had urged Stride to bring forward proposals for a remedy ahead of the summer recess. The Commons is set to break on 23 July 2024, usually returning in September 2024, although a precise date has not yet been confirmed......
In this issue: General election Personal pensions The Pensions Regulator Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers General election General election announced for 4 July 2024 — pensions impact Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has sought and secured the King’s consent to dissolve Parliament and has set a general election for 4 July 2024. Parliament will accordingly be prorogued on 24 May 2024 and dissolved on 30 May 2024, pursuant to the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022. For pensions, there is apprehension that the pre-election purdah period (during which civil servants must avoid any action that could compromise their political neutrality or prompt criticism that public resources are being used for party‑political purposes) may postpone the issuance of further regulations to resolve outstanding drafting matters linked to abolishing the lifetime allowance ( LTA). These measures are painstakingly awaited by the pensions industry to address the remaining drafting issues....
Karon Monaghan KC of Matrix Chambers, acting for the claimants, contended that the appellate court should overturn an Employment Appeal Tribunal ( EAT) decision which concluded that the tribunal could not entertain their discrimination claim. The claimants, former police officers N Clark of Derbyshire Constabulary and Michaela Bell of West Midlands Police—both forces based in central England—were the applicants. The EAT determined that regulation 12 of the Police ( Injury Benefit) Regulations, SI 2006/932, does not constitute a pension payment and therefore falls outside the jurisdiction of the employment courts. Regulation 12 provides for a lump-sum award to officers who suffer serious injury in the course of duty without fault on their part. However, Clark and Bell, each injured whilst serving and later acquiring significant disabilities, asked the Court of Appeal to reject the EAT’s conclusion and allow their challenge to...
Pady & Others (the FDA claimants) v HMRC, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and the Home Office [2024] EAT 73 The Employment Appeal Tribunal concluded that permitting the workers to pursue their case afresh, after a separate panel had rejected similar claims by other trade unions concerning the same scheme in 2022, would unfairly subject the government to repeated litigation on the same points. The cohort was known as the FDA claimants because they were represented by the First Division Association, a trade union for civil servants in senior and middle management. They were among several groups that brought claims relating to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. The claimants contended that the scheme, which introduced a cap on redundancy and exit payments for staff approaching pension age, discriminated against them when compared with their younger colleagues......
Bim Afolami, the economic secretary to the Treasury, stated in a speech released on 17 May 2024 that the UK pensions system is overly fragmented and underinvests when set against other nations. He told attendees at a UK Finance event on 15 May 2024 that UK pension funds allocate too little to unlisted domestic equities, particularly relative to international counterparts. Afolami added that comparable defined contribution ( DC) retirement schemes in Australia commit ten times the share of their assets to private markets than like-for-like UK plans. He further observed that the share of British pension funds’ holdings in UK-listed shares has declined from......
The SPP warned that merging pots under the so called pot for life measures could increase risk of taxpayer-backed rescues should benefit providers fail. In November 2024, the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) outlined proposals for regulations enabling employees to choose to keep paying into a single pension pot, rather than opening a fresh benefit plan when they start a new job under the proposed pension rules......
Findings set out in an official report from The Pensions Regulator indicated that average assets per member fell from just over £17,200 in 2012 to about £5,850 in 2023. The decline accompanies a marked expansion in the number of people saving into defined contribution schemes, increasing from 2.3 million in 2012 to 28.8 million in 2023 overall......
Yet Ernst & Young’s ( EY) advisory consulting division noted that 18 alerts were issued in the first three months of 2024, still above the 14 recorded across the same period in 2023. According to the analysis, escalating costs, tighter credit conditions and contractual problems were among the factors pushing up the tally of warnings by companies, the research shows. ‘ Although the volume of profit warnings from companies with defined benefit pension plans has fallen for the first time in a year, the figure remains greater than at this point last year,’ said Karina Brookes, an EY- Parthenon partner, in the statement. She......
Original news Professor G ( PO-17403) – 23 January 2024 Summary The DPO upheld a complaint about a public sector scheme that wrongly advised the complainant he could remain an active member past age 60. Suggesting he could, on an exceptional basis, continue to accrue benefits amounted to a negligent misrepresentation. It was also a breach of the duty to administer the scheme in line with the statutory regulations. The case serves as a reminder that scheme providers should not promise benefits that are not authorised by their scheme rules... What were the facts? Professor G became a deferred member of the NHS Pension Scheme (the Scheme) in 1985. NHS Business Service Authority ( NHS BSA) was the Scheme’s administrator. The NHS Pension Regulations 1995 (the Regulations), SI 1995/2008, stated that members could not accrue further pensionable service or pay contributions in the Scheme after age 60. In April...
Original news Mr N ( CAS-61348- B1V7) – 18 January 2024. Summary The DPO dismissed a grievance about the guidance an employer provided concerning opting out of an automatic enrolment arrangement. The worker had received sufficient details about the scheme and the process for opting out. From the materials supplied by his employer, he ought to have understood that pension contributions would be taken from his pay, and that he needed to opt out within three months of entry to qualify for a refund of those contributions. This decision underlines the need for employers to provide clear, adequate information about how any automatic enrolment scheme operates. What were the facts? Mr N was automatically enrolled into the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme 2015 (the Scheme)......
In this issue: The Pensions Regulator Pensions dashboards Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers The Pensions Regulator TPR publishes 2023 edition of annual occupational DC pension schemes landscape The Pensions Regulator ( TPR) has issued an overview of the UK’s trust-based occupational defined contribution ( DC) market for 2023. It sets out shifts since 2022, scheme and member data, and headline conclusions. Highlights include: an 11% reduction in non-micro DC and hybrid schemes due to concentration 84% of DC or hybrid memberships are in a master trust assets per member increased by just 1%, mainly reflecting significant market volatility in 2022, compared with annual rises of 10 to 20% over the preceding three years For further information, see: TPR: Occupational defined contribution landscape in the UK 2023. Pensions Regulator in talks with government over new...
On 8 May 2024, TPR said it was open to a ‘voluntary supervision’ model for professional trustees, mirroring the approach it already applies to administrators. Its remarks, set out in a letter to the parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee ( WPC), follow a government‑backed review urging a broader role for TPR over administrators. ‘ TPR is presently in dialogue with [the Department for Work and Pensions] about our remit concerning pension scheme administrators’, the regulator told the committee. ‘ In the interim, TPR has worked closely and jointly with the biggest administrators to develop a’......
In this issue: Pensions dashboards The Pensions Regulator Pensions scams and liberation Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Pensions dashboards Pensions Dashboards Programme releases updated version of data standards The Pensions Dashboards Programme ( PDP) has issued a refreshed set of data standards as the sector readies itself for connection with the dashboards ecosystem. They set out the data needed to locate and display pensions details, and must be met by both providers and schemes in order to fully connect to the ecosystem. The standards are intended to support schemes, providers, and any third-party organisations linking on their behalf, to develop a shared suite of message-handling tools for receiving and responding to data. The refreshed standards have been timed to align with the connection timeline guidance released by the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP). PDP...
Aegon UK Aegon UK argued that rules covering providers of these portals do not appreciate that savers at times require safeguarding against their own inertia. Its remarks followed an FCA consultation on the oversight regime for private-sector firms running the online services. The government wants the portals to help employees track down misplaced pension pots and gain a clearer picture of their projected retirement income. Yet the government has refrained from permitting savers to carry out online transfers or to merge their savings through the online portals themselves directly......
On 3 May 2024, the Big Four accountancy powerhouse reported that, on average, more than 5,000 DB pension schemes across Britain now hold enough assets to buy out their liabilities with insurance companies. According to John Dunn, Pw C UK’s head of pensions funding and transformation, ongoing and rising surplus levels leave scheme sponsors with the option to pause contributions. He said that if a scheme already has sufficient funds to meet its long-term objectives, adding more cash could create issues later on—for example, deciding how any excess surplus should be used, or overcoming obstacles to returning it to the sponsor after a tax charge......
Foulkes v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2024] UKFTT 322 ( TC) What are the practical implications of this case? Grasping the significance of this ruling will support practitioners in guiding clients on the tightly defined regime in FA 2004 concerning which payments registered pension schemes are permitted to make and the ramifications of any unauthorised payments. The purpose of the framework is to ensure that tax reliefs and exemptions on contributions to a registered pension scheme apply only where the scheme genuinely provides for members’ retirement benefits. The sole payments a registered pension scheme may make to an individual who is, or has been, a member are those set out in FA 2004, s 164. If an unauthorised member payment is made, FA 2004, s 208 imposes an income tax charge at 40% on the recipient, referred to as the...
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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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