Legal News

Speaking to Law360, Lisa Pinney described the new super‑regulator as grounded in the labour market and taking a compliance‑first stance on enforcement. From the outset, she wants it to draw on experience from industry, trade unions and the third sector to make compliance simpler while safeguarding workers from serious exploitation. Her message was clear: the agency will support responsible businesses, but will take the toughest action against those who exploit staff or undercut fair operators. Pinney and other leaders at the Fair Work Agency confirmed that 7 April 2026 is a soft launch: a website will go live and phone numbers from the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, and the Office for the Director of Labour Market Enforcement will be redirected to the agency. Around 450 HM Revenue and Customs staff—making up most of the...

What was the background to the consultation? On 15 May 2025, the government issued a formal consultation paper setting out detailed proposed reforms to the LGPS in England and Wales, together with accompanying draft regulations to enact them. The exercise centred on changes the government plans to deliver to widen access, improve fairness and simplify administration within the LGPS across the scheme. Survivor benefits and death grants Actions to tackle the gender pension gap Opt-out data collection Forfeiture rules and provisions Outstanding matters under the Mc Cloud remedy A suite of technical regulatory amendments The consultation formally closed on 7 August 2025, and the results were published on 2 February 2026. There were 172 responses, including 49 administering authorities, 25 employers, 68 members, the LGPS Scheme Advisory Board, the LGA, the LGPC, the LGPS National Pension Officer Group, a government department, four trade unions, plus professional bodies, and software and...

Advocate General for Scotland ( Representing the Ministry of Defence) v Milroy [2026] EAT 25 What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling potentially carries significant real-world consequences for reservists who were kept outside pension entitlement for service rendered before 1 April 2015, when the Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 commenced. That said, it should be borne in mind that under the 1975 and 2005 Armed Forces Pension Schemes, which applied only to regular personnel, a two-year qualifying period was required before any pension rights arose. On the Employment Tribunal’s findings, and looking at typical annual duty days and cumulative service, most reservists would not, in any event, have met the thresholds for a pension under those earlier arrangements. When advising in a specific matter, the individual’s span of service will therefore be a critical consideration. The conclusion on the basic pay point...

Employment Appeal Judge Douglas Fairley, sitting in Edinburgh, confirmed on 29 January 2026 a decision that the Mo D had penalised Major Charles Milroy. Fairley J said the department did so because of his part-time status, by ignoring his service before April 2015 for pension calculations and paying him less than full-time colleagues. In a judgment that may affect other army reservists, Fairley J rejected the Mo D’s case that Milroy was not a worker for the purposes of the Part-time Workers ( Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000, SI 2000/1551, which protect the rights of part-time staff. Fairley J stated that the lower tribunal had ruled ‘that there was no substantial difference between the nature of [ Milroy’s] relationship with the Army on the one hand and that between an employer and......

Seema Malhotra told a debate in the House of Commons on 28 January 2026 that the government intends to bring forward the Equality ( Race and Disability) Bill. The measure represents a Labour Party manifesto pledge. It would introduce new compulsory reporting requirements on the pay gap for employers with more than 250 staff members and codify a right to equal pay for disabled and ethnic minority workers, mirroring the protection already in place for women. However, Malhotra did not set out any timetable for presenting a draft bill. She stated to MPs only that at present......

Summary of provisions The Employment Rights Act 2025 ( Commencement No. 1 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/3 bring several measures into effect, although most operate as enabling powers that permit secondary legislation to be made. The outline below sets out the provisions to be implemented under the ERA 2025 ( Commencement No. 1 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regs 2026, SI 2026/3, and their position from 6 January 2026. Workers ( Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 repealed — ERA 2025, s 7 — Fully in force — January 2026 — SI 2026/3, reg 2(4) Exclusivity clauses in zero-hours arrangements banned — ERA 2025, s 8 — Fully in force — January 2026 — SI 2026/3, reg 2(8) Guaranteed hours for zero/low-hours workers — ERA 2025 ss.1, 6, Sch. 2 — Enabling only — January 2026 — SI...

Original news Source: Hansard Debate: National Insurance Contributions ( Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill, Volume 777: debated on Wednesday 17 December 2025 News summary MPs have approved the Second Reading of the National Insurance Contributions ( Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill following a concise yet pointed Commons exchange on 17 December 2025. The government measure (bill 344 in the 2024–25 session), brought forward on 4 December 2025, would create a power to levy NICs on pension salary sacrifice amounts above £2,000 per year, with implementation scheduled for April 2029. Ministers contended the proposal is a proportionate, targeted step to contain the fast-escalating fiscal cost of NIC relief for salary sacrifice—projected to almost triple by the decade’s end—and to bolster fairness, as many employees have no access to salary sacrifice at all. Opposition parties countered that the plan would deter saving, increase expense and...

This is the first instalment in a series of News Analyses, each concentrating on one of the principal changes within ERA 2025. The measures are arranged by the date of implementation (or anticipated implementation). Employment Rights Act 2025 (pdf) The Employment Rights Act 2025 overview factsheet, issued on 18 December 2025, confirms that: ERA 2025 will be rolled out in phases over a two‑year period common commencement dates (6 April and 1 October) will be used to bring the majority of regulations made using ERA 2025 powers into force the government remains committed to the timelines set out in the Implementing the Employment Rights Bill Roadmap, published on 1 July 2025 Review of extent of right to time off for public duties Provisions: section 19 Main changes: Requires the Secretary of State, within 12 months of the passing of ERA 2025 (ie before 18 December 2026), to review the...

Budget 2025 The plan will be financed through £725m set aside for the government’s growth and skills levy over this Parliament. According to Budget papers, the package backs apprenticeships for young people and brings in a reform that fully covers the cost of apprenticeships at small and mid-sized enterprises ( SMEs) for eligible candidates under 25... The levy, introduced in 2017, requires large employers with an annual payroll above £3m to contribute 0.5% of their wages bill. These funds support 95% of training costs for organisations that do not pay the levy (including SMEs) but wish to take on apprentices, with SMEs contributing the remaining 5%... On 26 November 2025, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told Parliament that the decision to fully fund SME apprentice recruitment followed lobbying from the Federation of Small Businesses and Small Business Britain. She confirmed funding that will make training for under-25...

Addressing a parliamentary committee, Leveson said younger people should be encouraged to enter criminal practice as barristers and solicitors, and that pay for such work ought to be reviewed. He has been leading a landmark, independent review of England’s ailing criminal court system. As he observed, the older cohort is dropping away and the younger are moving on, turning to other work. Many are getting involved in public inquiries or in regulatory matters—both areas that tend to be better paid than crime. This weak retention rate, he warned, feeds a long-term problem: the justice system needs experienced criminal judges, particularly for complex and difficult cases......

MPs defeated, by 308 votes to 153, a Lords proposal that would have required staff to serve six months before qualifying for protection against unfair dismissal, reaffirming the government’s flagship policy amid the latest bout of parliamentary ping-pong over the ERB. Employment rights minister Kate Dearden said the government is determined to provide unfair dismissal safeguards from the first day in a role. “ Not two years, not six months, but day-one,” she said. Dearden maintained that a six-month qualifying period would leave employees vulnerable to unfair dismissal during the opening months of employment......

Worker Protection ( Amendment to Equality Act 2010) 2023 Prompted by the regulation, which took effect a year ago on 26 October, more employers are completing risk assessments and have refreshed or introduced workplace anti-harassment policies and training, lawyers report. Investment in bystander intervention training is increasing, alongside a stronger emphasis on robust investigations into sexual harassment allegations. Organisations are also seeking indemnities from clients and suppliers to safeguard against liability for wrongdoing by third parties, according to lawyers. Yet the degree to which the new duty has been adopted often hinges on employer size, resources and sector. A recent Worknest survey of 400 human resources professionals shows that one in four businesses has still not carried out a sexual harassment risk assessment. According to Natasha Adom, a partner at GQ Littler, employers in regulated settings typically find compliance easier because they are...

The government has published four consultations in relation to the Employment Rights Bill ( ERB), which cover the following areas: the obligation on employers to tell workers of their right to join a trade union the right of trade unions to access workplaces physically, and to communicate with workers in person or digitally enhanced workplace protections against dismissal for pregnant women and new mothers a new entitlement to bereavement leave, including for pregnancy loss before 24 weeks This overview outlines the proposals in each consultation, the questions posed and the deadline for responding. For information on the progress of the ERB generally, see Practice Note: Employment Rights Bill—tracker. Duty to inform workers of right to join a trade union The ERB will introduce a new duty requiring employers to issue workers with a written statement, advising them of their right to join a trade union at the...

In a survey released on 11 September 2025, accountancy group BDO reported that companies were actively preparing for significant disruption as the government readies a substantial package of fiscal measures for the formal Budget statement to Parliament, scheduled for 26 November 2025. Industry rumours within the sector have intensified that ministers could scrap the National Insurance ( NI) relief applied to salary sacrifice arrangements for both employers and employees. BDO engaged polling firm Censuswide to question 505 C-suite leaders at mid-market businesses in August 2025 about their expectations for the forthcoming changes. The research indicated that 49% considered curbs on salary sacrifice schemes quite likely, while 45%......

The House of Lords has now concluded its scrutiny of the Bill following its third reading. As a result, the House of Commons will now formally consider changes suggested by peers earlier in the Bill’s journey, among them scrapping day-one protection from unfair dismissal for workers. The Commons’ consideration of the Lords’ amendments is set for Monday 15 September 2025. The government had flagged that measure as a flagship policy within the Bill, which at present extends to 330 pages in total......

By law, employers must publish pay gap figures solely for their staff, leaving law firms to choose if and how they reveal disparities within partnerships. This flexibility materially hampers like-for-like comparisons over time and obscures any sense of progress, as firms can alter how they present their numbers or drop publication entirely. In 2024, 39 of the 111 firms reviewed by Law360 voluntarily shared a business-wide median pay gap—a weighted blend of partner and employee gaps—across their operations. The average stood at 33.8%, versus 26.7% for employees alone during the same period. Of the 51 firms that issued a separate partner-only gap for 2024, the median was 24.7%, an increase of 2.8 percentage points on 2023 figures. Female representation in partnerships also trails noticeably. Women account for just 37% of partners in the UK, according to data from the Solicitors...

Analysis by Law360 Across 100 UK firms, men received average bonuses 31.2% higher than women in 2024, even though similar proportions of men and women were awarded bonuses that year. The difference was 26.8% in 2023. Specialists suggest that bonus disparities are often driven by a small number of particularly large awards. They also note that closing the bonus gap is proving more challenging than addressing base pay, partly because men still dominate higher-billing commercial practices. Solicitors Regulation Authority figures from 2023 show men outnumber women in corporate, financial, criminal and intellectual property roles, and the imbalance grows at partnership level. Women comprise only 30% of corporate law partners and 26% of full-equity partners in that practice area, compared with 47% at the beginning of their careers. ‘ This is a persistent issue and, frankly, one we need to stop tiptoeing around’, said Hannah Bradshaw,...

Aviva’s research showed that 54% of men identify as the primary planner of retirement savings, compared with 35% of women. According to the insurer, this points to a potential disparity in confidence or involvement between genders, or that men are more inclined to claim financial know-how. The study, carried out by Censuswide for Aviva, drew on a survey of 2,000 adults. It also found that a notable share of mid-life savers admit to avoiding their pension decisions. 54% of men say they take the lead on retirement planning, versus 35% of women. Three in ten savers aged 45 to 54 confess to ‘burying their head in the sand’ about their pension. Joanne Phillips, Managing Director of Aviva’s direct wealth business, said it is ‘fascinating to see that while’......

Although dependency on substances has for many years been acknowledged as a workplace issue needing careful management, the rapid advance of digital technology has pushed newer forms of dependency into the spotlight. According to a recent BUPA survey, more than half of UK workers have grappled with some kind of addiction. Behavioural addictions cover a broad span of compulsive behaviours, including the excessive use of digital technologies. Reports indicate that roughly one in eight adults in the UK is affected by a behavioural addiction. Examples can include gambling, gaming, heavy internet use, social media, pornography consumption, online shopping, or compulsive cryptocurrency trading. A notable by-product of the coronavirus ( COVID-19) lockdowns was a rise in these digital forms of addiction. Employers can find it hard to tackle the effect such addictions have on performance at work, particularly where roles include an element of remote...

The pilot, a joint initiative between the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health and Social Care, will test alternative approaches to issuing and supporting fit notes (documents completed by physicians setting out an employee’s fitness for work). The government also said the package would expand roles for non-doctor professionals and offer better work-health coaching for patients. Wes Streeting, the health and social care secretary, said that when someone visits their doctor’s surgery anxious about their job, they should leave with a plan rather than a slip of paper that shuts doors, and that we cannot afford to keep writing people off. The changes aim to tackle the present dependence on doctors’ judgements that staff are 'not fit for work'......