The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has, in conjunction with the Ministry of Housing Communities & Local Government, updated its ‘Fire safety: Approved Document B’ statutory guidance. The DLUHC has published the March 2024 amendments to Approved Document B, Volume 1—Dwellings and Volume 2—Buildings other than dwellings.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has updated its planning application templates, specifically revising the Lawful Development Certificate application form. The changes reflect amendments to enforcement time limits under section 171B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, as introduced by section 115 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. The update clarifies provisions regarding change of use to single dwellinghouse applications under section 171B(2). The revised templates, which apply to England, form part of DLUHC's collection of standardised planning application forms for local planning authorities.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has announced that Minister for Housing and Building Safety, Lee Rowley, has held a meeting with council chief executives to discuss the action they are taking against building owners who fail to fix medium and high-rise buildings with safety issues. Rowley has urged councils to explain how the £8m in funding, provided by the DLUHC, is being used to make rogue building owners address safety issues. The DLUHC has said that building owners will be faced with ‘robust enforcement from the council’ upon failure to progress remediation. ‌

Commercial law analysis: On 6 April 2025, the consumer-focused parts of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA 2024) came into effect, implementing a significant change in the UK’s consumer law regime. Most notably, it gives the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) substantial new investigatory powers, including the ability to impose fines of up to 10% of a company’s global turnover for breaches of consumer laws. In this Perspective, Simon Bishop, Partner; Alex Cooper, Senior Associate; and Giulia Trojano, Senior Associate of Hausfeld & Co LLP consider how the regime will apply in particular to business making false or misleading environmental claims (also known as greenwashing) and the importance to the CMA of combatting such greenwashing.

If the father of a child is not married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth, the father does not automatically hold parental responsibility for the child. Instead, he may acquire parental responsibility by way of: • a parental responsibility agreement or • the court ordering that the father shall have parental responsibility or • the father being placed on the birth certificate at registration or re-registration of the child’s birth under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 (BDRA 1953) Where the parents are not married

Dungeness B (Power Station): AGR power station operated by EDF Energy.

Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has published a readout of Deputy Attorney General (DAG), Lisa Monaco’s, trip to San Francisco and Seattle. During the trip, Monaco delivered keynote remarks at the American Bar Association’s 39th National Institute on White Collar Crime. In her speech, Monaco said that the DOJ’s approach to corporate criminal enforcement includes: holding individuals accountable; targeting resources to combat the most serious white-collar criminal conduct; and pursuing tough penalties for repeat corporate offenders. Additionally, Monaco announced a new whistleblower rewards programme, which will follow a 90-day pilot period. The new programme will aim to assist in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases. Monaco also announced that, in all corporate cases, federal prosecutors will assess companies’ ability to manage artificial intelligence (AI)-related risks as part of their overall compliance efforts, due to AI’s potential to ‘supercharge corporate crime’.

Law360: In March 2008, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Craig S Morford set out guidance for US Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors on drafting provisions pertaining to the use of monitors in connection with corporate deferred prosecution agreements and non-prosecution agreements.

Law360: In a major policy address delivered on 12 May 2025 at the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association's Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Conference in Washington, DC, Matthew Galeotti, head of the US Department of Justice (DOJ's) Criminal Division, announced a significant shift in how the DOJ approaches white collar enforcement.

Local government analysis: Although the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a resounding impact on everyday life, for some adults the loss of freedom did not mark a substantial change from pre-pandemic life. Anna-Maria Maleska of Penningtons Manches Cooper considers the impact of the pandemic on those with a deprivation of liberty safeguard (DOLS) and why it is more important than ever to ensure the necessary protections are in place for the most vulnerable in society.

Ireland—Banking & Financial Services analysis: This article, was written by Ciaran Flynnof Arthur Cox LLP. The European Commission has now published its long-awaited additional guidance on how to determine whether a service received from a financial entity should be classified as an ‘ICT Service’ within the meaning of DORA.