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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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Solicitor-client costs and CFA enforceability— Substance over form ( Richardson & Others v Slater & Gordon UK Ltd) Richardson and others v Slater & Gordon UK Ltd [2025] EWHC 1220 ( SCCO) What are the practical implications of this case? Although the obligation to provide an oral explanation of CFA terms was removed in 2005, this ruling highlights the ongoing value of a clear onboarding process to ensure clients grasp key or atypical CFA provisions, especially where they carry financial consequences. The court found it unnecessary for solicitors to deliver a detailed oral explanation of the workings of a CFA. That said, practitioners are likely to benefit from drawing attention to any unusual or significant clauses and preserving records of those conversations to deter later challenges. While informed consent is not a strict requirement for a CFA to be enforceable, its absence may bear upon the...
The government has published an implementation roadmap explaining how it will ready itself to put the Employment Rights Bill ( ERB) into practice. GOV. UK Press release: Implementing the Employment Rights Bill roadmap. It confirms that certain measures will come into force swiftly following Royal Assent of the ERB, including: the repeal of the majority of the Trade Union Act 2016 and the Strikes ( Minimum Services Levels) Act 2023 safeguards against dismissal for participating in industrial action For other measures, the roadmap details the principal actions needed before they can commence, namely: consultation with employers, workers, trade unions, and other stakeholders (stakeholders) to determine the most effective route to achieve the intended changes issuing guidance to support stakeholders and allowing time for people to familiarise themselves with it; this may comprise guidance or statutory Codes of Practice developed by...
Parental leave and pay review The government has begun a review of parental leave and pay rights, as part of its Make Work Pay plan. Launched on 1 July 2025, the review is scheduled to run for 18 months. See the GOV. UK press release, “ Landmark review of parental leave launched”, and the GOV. UK page, “ Parental leave and pay review”. In support of this, terms of reference have been published and a call for evidence is open from 1 July 2025 to 26 August 2025......
Amendment to guidance on separate-sex facilities The Equality and Human Rights Commission ( EHRC) has issued a further update to its interim update on the practical implications of the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16, which was first published on 25 April 2025. This revision concerns the requirement for workplaces to provide and maintain separate-sex (also referred to as single-sex) changing and washing facilities where such facilities are required......
What is the background to the consultation? The consultation, ‘ Local Government Pension Scheme in England and Wales: Access and fairness’, released on 15 May 2025, seeks to fundamentally enhance fairness in, and access to, the LGPS. It will examine five principal areas of concern: tackling survivor pensions and death grants reducing the gender pensions gap examining the high rate of opt-outs from the LGPS strengthening forfeiture provisions delivery of the Mc Cloud remedy What is being proposed? The document explains that some proposals offer definitive resolutions to entrenched issues (for example, securing equal survivor benefit entitlement), while others begin longer-term work (including measures to reduce the gender pensions gap). We highlight two central reforms: revisions to survivor benefits and actions to improve the gender pensions gap. Survivor benefit entitlement Currently, survivors in same-sex marriages, survivors in same-sex civil partnerships, and female survivors of opposite-sex marriages and opposite-sex civil...
On 27 May 2025, HM Revenue and Customs ( HMRC) said it had been sounding out employers’ views on a number of ‘hypothetical’ situations put to them. Among them was scrapping the National Insurance ( NI) relief for employers and employees in relation to these arrangements, removing NI exemptions that currently apply. Typically, employee pension contributions are free of income tax, yet they attract NI. Many employers provide an alternative under which staff give up part of their taxable pay and, instead, the employer makes an equivalent payment into the worker’s pension scheme on their behalf. This reduces NI liabilities for both parties, cutting NI bills for employers and for employees. Government figures suggest salary sacrifice features in about 30% of private sector and 9% of public sector pension arrangements......
On the morning of 17 April 2025, EHRC chair Kishwer Falkner said the regulator is ‘working at pace’ to deliver a refreshed code of conduct this summer, following the Supreme Court’s ruling that clarified transgender people do not have a legal entitlement to enter single‑sex spaces that match their chosen gender. In response to the judgment, legislators and employers have similarly been urged to revisit existing legal guidance and related policies. Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party, stated that the Equality Act 2010 ( Eq A 2010) — the principal anti‑discrimination statute — and the Gender Recognition Act 2004 ought to be examined to ensure they prevent discrimination and do not enable ‘social engineering’. ‘ These laws were written more than 20 years ago, when the world was different. A lot of people are trying to change what the law means,’...
Background This appeal concerns the Appellant’s challenge to the legality of statutory guidance from the Respondent, which treats a GRC confirming a person’s gender as female as bringing them within the Eq A 2010 definition of ‘woman’. The Gender Representation on Public Boards ( Scotland) Act 2018, an Act of the Scottish Parliament ( ASP 2018), sets targets to boost the share of women on public boards. Originally, ASP 2018 defined ‘woman’ to include those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment: individuals living as women and proposing to undergo, undergoing, or having undergone a process of gender reassignment. In 2022, following a challenge by the Appellant ( FWS1), the Inner House held that this statutory definition was unlawful, as it addressed matters beyond the Scottish Parliament’s legislative competence. After FWS1, the Respondent published revised statutory guidance, which is now under...
M Rose Construction Ltd v The Pensions Regulator [2025] UKFTT 282 ( GRC) What are the practical implications of this case? Appreciating the effect of this decision will aid practitioners advising on clients’ ‘automatic enrolment’ obligations under the PA 2008, namely to place specified employees into a workplace pension scheme and fund contributions. The ‘duties start date’ is the point when the first member of staff begins work for the business. In this matter, that date was 1 July 2023, and the company had to submit information for every person employed on that date by making a declaration of compliance. Where a declaration is not completed within the stated timeframe, TPR will issue a ‘compliance notice’ to the employer. If the employer still fails to act on that compliance notice, TPR can issue a penalty notice requiring payment of the penalty and the...
Employment Rights Bill— Stages What are the implications? This updated iteration of the Employment Rights Bill ( ERB) outlines the changes approved at the Report Stage in the House of Commons and is set to be examined by the House of Lords during its formal second reading there......
A revised edition of the Employment Rights Bill ( ERB), including the amendments agreed at Report Stage on 11 and 12 March, has been posted on the Parliament website. The 310‑page Bill has moved on to the House of Lords, where it is set for its second reading on 27 March. Employment Rights Bill (as brought from the Commons) We will provide more detail on the Bill’s new provisions in a separate bulletin, and will update our Employment Rights Bill—tracker to mirror these changes as soon as possible......
The new labour regulator The new labour regulator, formed by merging three separate existing enforcement bodies, will be empowered to provide guidance and support to staff taking legal action against their employers and to issue penalties to repay underpaid workers more quickly overall than pursuing an employment tribunal case themselves, Justin Madders told MPs. The agency will also be able to reclaim enforcement expenses from employers it successfully prosecutes, though this measure will be consulted on. ' We believe it is a key principle that, where wrongdoing occurs, the wrongdoer contributes towards the taxpayer’s costs of upholding the law,' Labour MP Madders said in the House of Commons......
Employment Rights Bill, As Amended ( Amendment Paper), 5 March 2025 Employment Rights Bill— Stages What are the implications? The Amendment Paper sets out the amendments lodged by 5 March 2025 for consideration at the report stage. There are no immediate consequences because it is still uncertain which of these proposals—if any—will be approved and trigger revisions to the ERB, although government-backed amendments remain more likely to pass. The consolidated schedule within the Amendment Paper also contains previously tabled, non-government amendments that we covered in our earlier News Analysis: Employment Rights Bill—non-government proposed amendments. The government’s suggested changes, many stemming from conclusions reached in its consultation responses, provide practitioners with an early indication of adjustments that are expected to filter into this key item of employment legislation. As a result, close monitoring of the debate remains advisable for all employment law...
Lawyers warned firms to consider less discriminatory alternatives in light of a successful claim by Martin Scott that Walker Morris' refusal to allow him to stay on as a senior partner after he turned 63 was unlawful Raymond Silverstein, head of employment at Browne Jacobson LLP, said the judgment published on 20 February 2025 sends a clear message to law firms: if you intend to impose and enforce a retirement age of 60, you need more than a broad assertion of ‘succession planning’ — you must be ready with evidence and data. Commentators observed that compulsory retirement remains prevalent among City practices, notwithstanding legal reforms that have limited when it can lawfully be used. Unpublished survey findings from the Association of Professional Partnerships show the practice began to wane in 2011, the year the UK prohibited compulsory retirement, with around two-thirds of...
Reeves v Frain (aka Simon Kevin Reeves aka Bill Reeves) and another [2025] Lexis Citation 174 What was the background? The claimant instituted contested probate proceedings, disputing the validity of a will his father executed on 7 January 2014. The defendants’ representation was partly financed via Damages- Based Agreements ( DBAs) with LLP Solicitors. Green J gave judgment for the defendants on 31 January 2022. A further hearing on 4 March 2022 addressed consequential matters, among them costs. The defendants sought recovery of costs under the DBAs, which the claimant challenged as irrecoverable. The court considered preliminary issues concerning the enforceability of the DBAs and whether any fresh retainers were allegedly formed after judgment. What did the court decide? The court addressed preliminary issues regarding whether the DBAs were enforceable and whether any new retainers were allegedly established post-judgment......
The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs report Released on 7 January 2025, the report aggregates responses from 1,000+ employers worldwide, covering 14 million-plus workers across 55 economies, and concludes that uptake of DEI (also known as EDI) keeps climbing. For observers tracking the political turbulence—after a polarising US election and strident anti‑ DEI commentary from high‑profile politicians, corporate figures and Wall Street leaders—this may seem unexpected. Only months ago, Bloomberg News characterised DEI efforts on Wall Street as 'anxious, fraught and changing fast', while Subha Barry, ex‑diversity chief at Merrill Lynch, declared, ' We're past the peak'. Yet the WEF now reports 83% of employers have DEI measures in place, a sharp rise from 67% in 2023. It further notes that accessing diverse talent pools ranks within the top five most effective business practices for boosting talent...
Background On 10 October 2024, the Labour government unveiled the Employment Rights Bill ( ERB). The ERB consolidated a series of individual and manifesto pledges made by the Labour party during its election campaign, promised for delivery within the first 100 days of a Labour administration. After completing the First and Second Readings in the House of Commons ( Ho C), the Bill advanced to the Committee stage for detailed examination. The Committee phase for the Bill, in the Commons, which entails tabling, presenting and debating a range of proposed amendments by government and non-government organisations, commenced on 26 November 2024. On 27 November 2024, the Ho C issued the Employment Rights Bill ( Amendment Paper) ( ERB Amendment Paper) setting out the various proposed amendments to the Bill. On 27 January 2025, following the conclusion of the Ho C Committee stage on 17...
A You Gov poll for the Sutton Trust, a social mobility charity, published on 23 January 2025, makes clear that the legal profession ranks joint third among 12 sectors paying interns nothing, or less than the national minimum wage of £11.44 per hour for people aged 21 and over. Only real estate and construction are positioned below the legal industry. Nick Harrison, the Sutton Trust’s chief executive, said it is shocking that, in this day and age, so many employers still pay interns under the minimum wage, or worse, nothing at all, and that they should be ashamed. The charity has called for an outright ban on unpaid internships lasting more than four weeks, alongside tougher enforcement of current minimum wage legislation. As outlined clearly by the survey, In......
What were the key developments in 2024 The Employment Rights Bill The Employment Rights Bill 2024 ( ERB), unveiled on 10 October 2024, consolidates a suite of rights and policy measures pledged by the Labour government within its ‘ New Deal for Working People’ and the Labour Manifesto. For comprehensive information, consult the Practice Note: Employment Rights Bill—tracker......
Margaret Beels, director of Labour Market Enforcement, and Elysia Mc Caffrey, chief executive at the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority ( GLAA), are set to see their organisations wound up once the new agency is created. Even so, both praised the government’s pledge to form a single enforcer for employment rights—an idea many in the profession have backed for years. The body will not be up and running before 2026 at the earliest. Meanwhile, those tasked with folding multiple regulators into a lead authority remain unclear about its operation, its priorities, and whether resources will match ministers’ ambitions. “ What I’ve been told is, ‘ It’s about investment, not cost-cutting,’” said Mc Caffrey. “ But we’ve had no further detail on funding or headcount.” The Fair Work Agency ( FWA) will unite current enforcement of labour standards, employment agencies, and the minimum wage. It will also...
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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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