The European Payments Council (EPC) has published its annual update to the ‘Guidelines on cryptographic algorithms usage and key management’,  which provides guidance to the European payment industry in the field of cryptographic algorithms, security protocols, confidentiality and integrity protection and related key management practices. The new version includes updates on authenticated encryption, homomorphic encryption, and considerations for quantum computing. The EPC emphasises the importance of organisations reviewing their cryptographic strategies to remain secure in a post-quantum world. The EPC intends to review and update the guidelines annually to keep pace with advancements in cryptology.

There are three main procurement routes used in UK energy projects: • engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract procurement • split EPC contract procurement • multi-party contract procurement This Practice Note provides a review of each of these methods, and discusses some of the benefits and disadvantages of each route and practical issues to consider. It is intended as a basic guide; professional legal advice should be sought before choosing a procurement option for your specific project. EPC contract procurement The EPC contract is the most common method of procurement for UK energy, large-scale and complex infrastructure projects. Under an EPC contract the contractor is responsible for the delivery of the total project including the design, engineering, procurement of the materials, construction and testing of the mechanical elements. For more information on EPC contracts see Practice Notes: Introduction to EPC contracts, EPC contracts—handover, testing and commissioning and EPC contracts—limits of liability. The diagram below illustrates the key contractual structure of a project procured using the EPC route with project finance backing. This structure

Emergency Planning Consultative Committee

Emergency Planning Consultative Group

Electronic Personal Dosimeter

Emergency Preparedness Engineer

Emergency Planning Group

Emergency Plume Gamma Monitoring System is a site boundary system for monitoring any airbourne radioactivity released from a nuclear site.

The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has produced a report examining the educational psychologist workforce in England, drawing on national data and case studies from local authorities to assess workforce adequacy and funding needs. The report estimates around 3,400 full-time equivalent educational psychologists, including those outside local authority employment, and finds substantial variation in provision that is not aligned with need, alongside the absence of national benchmarks for service capacity. It identifies key pressures including poor data quality, high statutory workloads, and recruitment and retention challenges, with evidence indicating that limited career development and narrow roles contribute to staff leaving local authority services. The analysis associates higher staffing levels with better outcomes for pupils with special educational needs and concludes that most authorities are below benchmark levels, estimating that an additional 1,400 educational psychologists, at an annual cost of around £140m, would be required to meet indicative staffing levels.

This Practice Note contrasts the treatment of how the assessment of patentability is viewed, and the extent to which it is now aligned, between the UK and the European Patent Office (EPO), paying particular attention to the Supreme Court decision in Emotional Perception AI Ltd v Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks and its consequences for software and AI. It further discusses this judgment’s landmark impact on general approaches to assessing patentable invention, including how the UK approach on inventive step differs from that of the EPO. Patenting inventions involving computer programs There has traditionally been a widespread misconception that there exists a general prohibition on the patenting of inventions involving computer programs. This is not the case. Patents for computer-implemented inventions (CIIs) are routinely granted by patent offices worldwide, including the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and EPO. With the advance and use of AI technologies, the issues surrounding patentability of this technology had not been extensively investigated by major jurisdictional courts, but it has now with the Emotional

The European Patent Organisation (EPO) has announced that the Republic of Moldova became its 40th member state following the deposit of its instrument of accession to the European Patent Convention on 25 March 2026. From 1 June 2026, European patent applications automatically include the designation of Moldova. The EPO's centralised procedure now covers 40 member states, 1 extension state and 5 validation states, providing patent protection across 46 countries and covering a market of over 715 million people.

The European Patent Office (EPO) has announced that Technical Board of Appeal 3.3.05 has referred several questions to the Enlarged Board of Appeal in case G 1/26 (Coated steel strips) under Article 112(1)(a) of the European Patent Convention (EPC). The referral seeks clarification on the circumstances in which a Board of Appeal may regard a decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal as necessary and on the correct approach to claim interpretation when assessing patentability and compliance with Article 123(2) EPC.