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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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Broadstone reported that data from the Pension Protection Fund’s monthly index showed the figure had risen from a £442.3bn surplus at the end of February. For the 5,050 UK defined benefit schemes assessed, the index indicated total assets of £1,434.3bn at March’s end, while total liabilities stood at £978.8bn across the cohort. Over the same period, the funding ratio edged up from 146.1% to 146.5%, a modest uplift. Sarah Elwine, Broadstone’s actuarial director, called the 'positive funding environment' welcome news for defined benefit pension schemes......
On 8 April 2024, People’s Partnership reported that research it had commissioned from the Behavioural Insights Team, a non-governmental group, found that offering cash perks makes savers more inclined to shift their pension. The provider said that one in five participants—nearly 5,700 people—would move their pension on the back of a £100 cashback offer, even though the receiving plan’s higher fees would leave them over £1,000 worse off within just five years. Patrick Heath- Lay, chief executive of People’s Partnership, said the work, undertaken between September and November, shows these incentives distort the pension transfer process, to the detriment of savers trying to choose wisely. He added that people become less likely to read and comprehend simple details about the new pension, even when they are clearly flagged, and they risk losing money. Heath- Lay said this of retirement savers: '...
On 5 April 2024, Pw C noted trustees are increasingly compelled to weigh whether to transfer scheme liabilities to an insurer, merge into a superfund, or continue running on to build surplus funds. On 1 April 2024, the Financial Reporting Council brought in new actuarial standards. The framework, TAS 300, obliges actuarial advisers to set out alternative pathways for trustees as their pension schemes near the end of their funding journeys overall......
LCP stated on 9 April 2024 that the aggregated pensions surplus across the UK schemes of FTSE100 firms is currently around £60bn. This robust financial position has prompted more schemes to consider continuing to operate rather than concluding, LCP noted. However, it did not reveal how many are assessing this route. Jonathan Griffith, partner and head of endgame innovation at LCP, said funding levels were again very strong as the quarter closed, underlining strength in overall finances......
On 9 April 2024, XPS Pensions argued it was unreasonable to expect taxpayers — most of whom are in defined contribution schemes — to shoulder the risk for members enjoying far more generous final salary-style benefits. The firm issued this warning as the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) considers allowing the PPF to absorb otherwise financially sound pension schemes that cannot secure an insurance buyout of their liabilities. Paul Cuff, chief executive of XPS, said it was extraordinary to suggest UK taxpayers should underwrite risk within a PPF-run consolidator......
On 4 April 2024, XPS Pensions Group reported that the figure, broadly unchanged from the prior month, reflects aggregate assets of £1,454bn against liabilities of £1,303bn. The consultancy described this as an 'extremely positive' position, with workplace pension arrangements typically standing at 112% of liabilities as at 27 March 2024. ' Overall pension scheme surpluses remain close to record highs, as highlighted last month, supported by robust asset returns across credit spreads and equities,' noted Felix Currell, senior investment consultant at XPS. This maintains the robust position seen in previous update......
On 6 April 2024, the trade association warned that introducing so-called lifetime provider models risks undermining the progress already made since parliament brought in rules back in 2012 compelling employers to enrol staff automatically into workplace retirement savings schemes. In November 2023, the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) proposed changes that would let employees keep paying into a single retirement pot, rather than automatically opening a new plan each time they switch jobs. Ministers have encountered resistance to these ideas and seem to have cooled their tone noticeably on the overall package. The proposals are intended to tackle the steadily growing number of small pension pots. Among them is a 'stapling' approach, also called pot for life, that would permit workers to remain in the first scheme they started contributing to at the outset of their careers......
HMRC urges delays amid pension rule changes In a newsletter issued late on 4 April 2024, HMRC advised savers to hold off on certain payments and transfers until issues linked to rule changes are resolved. This covers situations where individuals have enhanced protection with lump sum entitlements above £375,000 ( US$472,000). The lifetime allowance — a tax break for pension savings set at just over £1m — will be removed on 6 April 2024. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt set out the proposals in last month’s spring budget, leaving the tax authority and businesses with a very tight timetable. ‘ To indicate at such short notice that people should postpone taking benefits or transferring highlights how poorly these changes have been put into practice,’ said Andrew Tully, technical services director at Nucleus Financial, on 5 April 2024......
Aegon has urged decision-makers to consider different approaches to the point at which people can access the state pension. The age is 66 today, with rises planned to 67 in 2028 and 68 by 2048. Steven Cameron, Aegon’s pensions director, argued ministers should introduce greater flexibility, warning that pushing the pension age higher will be a major worry for those who do not feel able to work into their late sixties. “ Instead of a continually rising fixed age, we want the government to examine giving individuals more freedom over when they begin to claim”, Cameron said......
In this issue: Funding The Pensions Regulator Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Funding Funding Funding provisions of the Pension Schemes Act 2021 to come into force on 6 April 2024 The Pension Schemes Act 2021 ( Commencement No. 8 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2024, SI 2024/451, were made on 2 April 2024. They designate 6 April 2024 as the commencement date for section 123 and Schedule 10 of the Pension Schemes Act 2021, relating to funding for defined benefit ( DB) schemes, to the extent not already commenced. These measures permit changes to the statutory funding framework for DB schemes. The detailed provisions are set out in the Occupational Pension Schemes ( Funding and Investment Strategy and Amendment) Regulations 2024, SI 2024/462, which were made on 2 April 2024 and take effect on 6 April 2024. ...
On 1 April 2024, the University and College Union ( UCU) announced that benefits for Universities Superannuation Scheme ( USS) members were reinstated, following Universities UK, the sector body, agreeing in October 2023 to roll back the reductions. Members of the union staged 69 days of strike action in response to proposals to change the pace at which benefits are built up. The scheme’s trustee had signed off the reductions, arguing they were required to address a funding shortfall......
The Bank of England’s ( Bo E) Financial Policy Committee ( FPC) stated that boosting liquidity buffers for liability-driven investment ( LDI) funds has made the sector more resilient to abrupt shifts in yields on long-dated government bonds. The government’s September 2022 mini-budget, comprising unfunded tax cuts, unsettled credit markets. Yields on gilts jumped 160 basis points within four days, a surge that surpassed regulators’ most adverse expectations at the time. LDI funds—used by pension providers to......
On 25 March 2024, the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) issued guidance setting out a clear timetable for large pension schemes to connect to the PDP. The project will roll out online portals enabling workers to view how much they have put aside for retirement. Master trust schemes with 20,000 or more members must be connected by 30 April 2025, the DWP confirmed. Other pension schemes face staged windows across 2025 and 2026, determined by the size of their saver base. On 26 March 2024, Nigel Peaple, director of policy and advocacy at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, said the guidance is a major step towards the day when everyone can see all their pensions—state, workplace and private—together in one place. The DWP has also set a final connection deadline of 31 October 2026. By then, every pension scheme should have...
The Work and Pensions Committee ( WPC) The WPC has concluded that The Pensions Regulator’s ( TPR) primary objective of protecting the Pensions Protection Fund ( PPF) is now redundant, as the lifeboat fund holds a £12bn funding surplus. It says TPR should pivot to safeguarding both past and future benefits for members, helping ensure open schemes are not compelled to shut to new accruals. This was a central recommendation in a report on DB pensions, arising from a comprehensive inquiry launched in March 2023. Stephen Timms, who chairs the committee, said the PPF’s markedly stronger financial position offers welcome flexibility for government to prevent open schemes being constrained by excessively cautious regulatory limits, a development the committee applauds. TPR’s statutory objectives include reducing the likelihood that the PPF must pay compensation to members of a retirement scheme......
What was the background to TPR’s guidance on private market investments? Following the government’s 2023 Mansion House reforms—designed to enable the financial services sector to unlock capital for UK industries, lift savers’ returns and support wider economic growth— TPR released guidance to help occupational pension scheme trustees evaluate whether private market assets could lead to better outcomes for savers. TPR expects trustees to act in savers’ best interests by giving due consideration to the full breadth of investment options, including private markets. The guidance also stresses that trustees should have the right level of knowledge and understanding so they can collaborate effectively with their advisers when judging how access to private market assets may meet their needs. This includes setting clear objectives for investment advisers in relation to advice on private market investments and on improving outcomes for pension scheme...
Aon plc, the British‑ American management consultancy, said it would ‘naturally’ give company directors more sway over a scheme if trustees of defined benefit plans were obliged to obtain the sponsor’s agreement to a new ‘statement of strategy’, as outlined by TPR earlier in March 2024. TPR also stated that managers of defined benefit retirement schemes must lodge the strategy alongside their routine valuation documents from 22 September 2024. A defined benefit pension delivers a guaranteed income each year for life, determined by a worker’s final or average salary......
On 21 March 2024, the DWP revealed it has to date identified 97,000 state pension payments that were underpaid, with individual shortfalls ranging from £2,192 to £12,486. Having uncovered historic errors in benefit payments, the department has embarked on a major review of state pension provision. The Office for Budget Responsibility indicates the exercise could cost the DWP around £3bn in total. The department confirmed that these underpayments pertain to the period from 11 January 2021 to 29 February 2024. As the DWP noted: ‘ These are cases for which a current or historical...’...
Women’s state pension age communication failings The Parliamentary Ombudsman declared that the DWP did not properly notify women that their state pension age ( SPA) had been altered. It concluded that the government should put in place a compensation scheme to address these historic failings and make amends. Bringing its probe into the state pension scandal to a close, the report found that the way the changes were implemented deprived women of chances to make informed choices about their money, and undermined their personal autonomy and sense of financial control. In 2018 the government increased women’s SPA from 60 to 65, following a 1990 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union on gender equality, aligning the retirement age with that of men. Campaigners contended that this was particularly problematic for the 3.8 million women born in the 1950s who were nearing...
Analysis from the Centre for Economics and Business Research ( CEBR) indicated that at least 4.8 million pension plans were classed as ‘lost’ across the UK in 2023. Around one in ten workers thought they might have mislaid a retirement savings pot valued at over £10,000. CEBR questioned 1,957 UK adults and adjusted the results by gender, age, region, working status and social grade, drawing on Office for National Statistics data. The research was carried out for retirement savings consolidator Pension Bee. ‘ The sums that have slipped off the radar in old pensions are already staggering,’ said Becky O’ Connor, Pension Bee’s director of public affairs, warning the figure ‘is on course to become a national crisis’......
In this issue: Pensions taxation The Pensions Regulator Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Pensions taxation The Pensions ( Abolition of Lifetime Allowance Charge etc) Regulations 2024 The Pensions ( Abolition of Lifetime Allowance Charge etc) Regulations 2024 ( SI 2024/356) were laid before the House of Commons on 14 March 2024 and take effect from 6 April 2024. These regulations provide consequential, transitional and saving measures linked to abolishing the lifetime allowance charge, and set out how the pension commencement excess lump sum should operate. In particular, the regulations: amend the Finance Act 2024 regarding when pension schemes must report tax on lump sums, and clarify the rules for the pension commencement excess lump sum adjust regulations to set the available overseas transfer allowance where a member has already used some of their lifetime...
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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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