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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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On 7 February 2024, the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) announced it had established the Small Pots Delivery Group to help savers find small inactive pensions and deferred small pension pots. Pensions Minister Paul Maynard noted that these pots, which frequently stem from a previous job and hold relatively small sums, are difficult to monitor, while also being costly and inefficient......
Royal London On 7 February 2024, Royal London reported that research it had asked Oxford Economics to undertake found that raising contributions by either employers or staff would bolster retirement outcomes for large numbers of Britons. The insurer noted that prospects have been lifted by recent measures such as automatic enrolment. Under this system, employees are put into a scheme by default, and monthly pension payments are set at a floor of 8% of pay—5% from workers and 3% from employers. Jamie Jenkins, Royal London’s director of policy, called the policy a “huge success” that has reversed the decline in workplace pension saving. However, he cautioned that it remains unfinished business, as current contribution levels will still leave many unable to afford the standard of living they hope for in retirement, Jenkins said......
On 2 February 2024, TPR wrote to the Work and Pensions Committee ( WPC), stating it now holds a 'more robust picture' of the durability of LDI funds’ finances, instruments pensions providers deploy to hedge exposure to interest rate movements. After the government's ill‑fated September 2022 mini‑ Budget, TPR faced claims it had been asleep at the wheel. That announcement rattled the UK's £1.4trn traded gilt market. In her letter to the WPC, TPR Chief Executive Nausicaa Delfas noted that, since the crisis, and following the turmoil, TPR has put in place 'flows of data' from the......
The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association's ( PLSA) updated research on retirement living standards for 2023–24 The PLSA’s review for 2023–24 reports a widespread rise in outgoings for British pensioners and examines three lifestyle categories. Minimum: a single person’s essential spend rises from £12,800 to £14,400; for a couple it climbs from £19,900 to £22,400. Moderate: costs increase from £23,300 to £31,300 for an individual and from £34,000 to £43,100 for a pair. More luxurious: allowing for treats such as routine beauty appointments or theatre outings, the figure reaches £43,100 for one person and £59,000 for a two-person household. These sums reflect what the public believe pensioners require to meet their needs—not merely to get by but to live with......
In this issue: Pensions Regulator Trustees, governance and administration Members and benefits Employers and automatic enrolment Automatic enrolment and scheme rules Scheme amendments and construction of scheme rules Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Pensions Regulator TPR report shows it acted promptly to protect savers following Capita cyber security incident The Pensions Regulator ( TPR) has released a report setting out how it collaborated with pension administrator Capita to gauge risks to pension schemes after a cyber security incident in March 2023. The paper explains that TPR intervened to make sure Capita was determining the scale of any impact on schemes and alerting trustees of those affected so that safeguards could be implemented. According to TPR, this rapid response meant thousands of pension savers were safeguarded. Capita learned of a cyber incident on 31 March 2023 in...
What is the background to the guide? Common perception holds that the pensions sector has traditionally prioritised the ‘ E’ in ESG, with comparatively less attention paid to other areas—especially social factors such as workforce conditions, remuneration practices, bribery, health and safety, and modern slavery. Aware of this, in 2021 the government launched a call for evidence to gather insights on trustees’ approaches to social issues. In response, the Government created a cross-department working group, the TSF, which was then widened to include investment managers, asset owners, professional advisers and regulators. This group ultimately developed a draft guide for considering these factors in pension scheme investments (the Guide), which was released for consultation in October 2023. What are the key aspects and themes of the draft guide? Does it raise any issues or concerns? The Guide provides a highly practical set of resources to help pension...
On 6 February 2024, the Big Four accountancy powerhouse reported the funding position of the UK’s 5,000 defined benefit pension schemes had increased from £230bn in December 2023 and £165bn in January 2023. Pw C noted that higher long-term gilt yields have lowered the projected expense of a buyout—an arrangement where all pension obligations are transferred to an insurance company and the scheme wound up......
High-ranked nations are ageing rapidly compared with lower-ranked ones, research by the International Longevity Centre in London has revealed. The analysis drew on the think tank’s Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index overall, which listed 121 countries in total in 2019 for its comparison. Among them were Switzerland in first place, Iceland in second, and the UK placed 16th in the index. It assessed the dependency ratio, a measure of the percentage of people aged 65 and over relative to working adults aged 15 to 64. A 20% ratio at a state pension age of 65 equates to five workers supporting each retiree in practice. However, projections of 50% by 2050 in some nations indicate there would be just one worker for every retiree by then, the Centre said......
Newell Trustees Ltd v Newell Rubbermaid UK Services Ltd and another [2024] EWHC 48 ( Ch), [2024] All ER ( D) 99 ( Jan) What are the practical implications of this case? The scenario of a pension scheme moving members from final salary to money purchase in the 1990s is far from rare. In this instance, the switch occurred within a single scheme: a final salary section was established for those over 44; a money purchase section for those under 40; and members aged 40 to 44 were given a choice between the two. That age-based structure set in 1992 later triggered assertions that the trustee would now be acting unlawfully by discriminating on age grounds if it delivered different pension benefits to those who transferred to money purchase compared with what they would have had under final salary. It was alleged that the only basis for the...
2024 On 1 February 2024, Hymans Robertson signalled it expects heightened competition among insurers for buy-ins, with the sector heading towards a record wave of multibillion-pound transactions this year. Ongoing improvements in scheme funding over recent years have prompted a marked increase in retirement plans aiming to pass their liabilities to insurers, a process referred to as pension risk transfer. In these arrangements, corporate defined benefit schemes hand over part or all of their obligations to an insurer in return for a single, upfront premium. Hymans Robertson also suggested more schemes are set to shed liabilities, forecasting that 2024 will deliver another record for buy-in activity—overtaking the £50bn recorded last year......
On 31 January 2024, Economic Secretary to the Treasury Bim Afolami informed a committee of MPs that ministers intend to curb possible regulatory arbitrage arising from differences between the frameworks for superfunds and insurance firms, seeking to address the gap between regimes. Since 2020, the nascent defined benefit ( DB) superfund market has been working to interim rules set out by The Pensions Regulator. Despite repeatedly promising a lasting framework via primary legislation, the government has yet to deliver, close to four years later, and a permanent regime remains outstanding......
Labour said it would commence a review to 'pinpoint and remove the obstacles preventing pension schemes from putting more money into UK productive assets' within its Plan for Financial Services, released on 31 January 2024. This mirrors the government’s Mansion House reforms, a suite of measures unveiled in 2023 aimed at spurring the pensions industry to back growth assets. Specialists greeted Labour’s commitment as signalling political continuity for the pensions sector over the medium to longer term horizon......
In this issue Funding and investment Pensions Protection Fund Pensions tax regime Scheme amendments and construction of scheme rules Personal pension schemes Daily and weekly news alerts Dates for your diary Trackers Funding and investment DWP publishes revised DB pension funding regulations following consultation The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) has issued the government’s response to its consultation on draft defined benefit ( DB) funding and investment regulations, which ran from July to October 2022, alongside updated draft Occupational Pension Schemes ( Funding and Investment Strategy and Amendment) Regulations 2024 (the draft Funding and Investment Strategy Regulations 2024), laid before both Houses of Parliament on 29 January 2024. The draft Funding and Investment Strategy Regulations 2024 require DB schemes to adopt a more explicit funding and investment strategy and to provide a...
Avon Cosmetics Ltd v Dalriada Trustees Ltd and others [2024] EWHC 34 ( Ch), [2024] All ER ( D) 76 ( Jan) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision is of real significance for pensions practitioners, as it tackles the familiar question of how a trustee ought to handle an historic amendment introduced in breach of the scheme’s power of amendment, in situations where some members have benefited and others have lost out. In particular, practitioners should note that there are now arguably conflicting High Court authorities in respect of the test to be applied in cases where the exercise of a power is partially valid. His Honour Judge Davis- White addressed the second limb of the severance test in BESTrustees v Stuart [2001] PLR 283 (not reported by Lexis Nexis®UK) — which asks, in a case of an...
On 24 January 2024, TPR stated trustees must now duly weigh the complete spectrum of investment choices to enhance member benefits. The regulator’s guidance followed the government’s so‑called Mansion House reforms—a broad package of measures unveiled by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in July 2023—intended to spur pension funds to back UK infrastructure or start‑up enterprises. Pension saving arrangements have traditionally allocated chiefly to steady instruments like government bonds. TPR added that higher‑return equities could, instead, lift a scheme’s performance and deliver improved retirement outcomes for members by boosting returns compared with predictable assets commonly used today......
On 24 January 2024, the parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee ( WPC) contacted Bim Afolami, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, to gauge the government’s intended approach to additional oversight of superfunds. The nascent defined benefit ( DB) superfund market has been operating under a set of interim rules published by The Pensions Regulator ( TPR) in 2020. Ministers have repeatedly pledged to introduce a lasting regime via primary legislation, yet almost four years later this has not materialised. In his letter, committee Chair Sir Stephen Timms pressed Afolami on whether primary legislation is required to deliver a permanent regulatory framework for pension superfunds......
Employment Judge Rohan Pirani found that members of the First Division Association ( FDA)—the union for senior and middle-ranking civil servants—should have their claims against HM Revenue and Customs ( HMRC) struck out, as the matters they raised had already been resolved in group proceedings in which they participated. In a judgment issued on 10 January 2024 and only recently released, Judge Pirani said that attempting to re-argue the same points at this stage of the multiple constitutes an abuse on these facts. It was not, in itself, an abuse of process to lodge the claims initially; the problem arose only after the ruling in the group litigation, known as Newby, when the abuse issue emerged. The decision records that substantial numbers of grievances from members of the Public and Commercial Services Union, alongside other representative bodies, were lodged across numerous...
Lane Clark & Peacock LLP ( LCP) On 22 January 2024, Lane Clark & Peacock LLP ( LCP) publicly argued proposals trailed in November 2023, enabling employees to keep paying into one lifetime retirement pot, are not the optimal fix for the growing number of small pension arrangements. The ‘pot-for-life’ approach would replace the current system in which staff automatically begin a new savings scheme whenever they switch jobs. In its response to the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP) consultation, the consultancy said these reforms are a major distraction from more urgent priorities, such as progressing recent legislation to increase automatic enrolment pension contributions. The consultation is scheduled to close on 24 January 2024. Since the government introduced rules in 2012 requiring employers to auto-enrol workers into workplace retirement saving schemes, the volume of small pension pots has increased markedly over...
Insurance broker Willis Towers Watson ( WTW) said in its annual pensions de‑risking report that insurers are set to complete around £60bn of bulk annuity buyouts this year. Such policies safeguard members’ benefits by offloading exposure to prevailing interest-rate movements and inflationary pressures, among other risks. The firm further forecast approximately £20bn of so‑called longevity swaps, transferring the risk of members living longer than expected from schemes to insurers. WTW said expectations of higher activity, following last year’s tally of more than £50bn in bulk annuity deals, reflect stronger funding positions. Both mechanisms aim to secure members’ benefits by transferring key risks to insurers this year, too......
Mercer’s monthly analysis of FTSE 350 pension schemes Mercer’s latest review of FTSE 350 pension arrangements indicates that prospective changes making it easier for corporate sponsors to access defined benefit funding surpluses could prompt many schemes to continue operating rather than seek an insurance buy-out. The government is presently considering plans to let companies draw on pension surpluses, which could be used to enhance benefits for members in newer, less generous defined contribution schemes. These proposals are intended to encourage schemes to keep running, rather than wind up through a de-risking deal with the insurance sector. Mercer said......
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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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