Law360: The government proposes making all maternity, shared parental and adoption leave automatically pensionable for members in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), among a raft of other changes it said would boost benefits and end 'years of discrimination' when it published a consultation on 15 May 2025.

Family analysis: On 5 June 2026, the Ministry of Justice announced a consultation on wide-ranging reform of the law governing the financial consequences of relationship breakdown in England and Wales to better protect couples and their children. The proposals cover financial remedies on divorce and dissolution, a new statutory scheme for separating cohabitants and intestacy rights for cohabitants. Key proposals include codifying core financial remedy principles, introducing qualifying nuptial agreements, creating a needs-based regime for eligible cohabitants and extending inheritance protection for qualifying cohabitants. The consultation is open until 14 August 2026.

Tax analysis: Following an announcement made at the 2025 Budget, the government has published a consultation on its proposals to significantly expand the scope of the existing notification regime for uncertain tax treatments (the UTT regime). Jackelyn West, senior associate at Macfarlanes, analyses the proposals.

The UK government has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the National Security and Investment Act 2021 (Notifiable Acquisition) (Specification of Qualifying Entities) Regulations 2021, which defines the scope of mandatory notification requirements under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 (NSI Act).

Law360, London: Chancellor Rachel Reeves said 29 July 2024 that an autumn Budget planned for 30 October 2024 will include feature selected tax rises, a warning accompanied by strong hints from HM Treasury that fund managers and non-domicile taxpayers could take a bigger hit.

On 16 July 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published a consultation entitled ‘Time-limited relief from the Community Infrastructure Levy in London’. The consultation seeks views on draft regulations that would introduce a new, time-limited relief from borough-level Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) for qualifying residential developments in Greater London. The proposals implement the government's earlier commitment, made as part of the London Homes emergency package and following consultation in late 2025, to help unlock stalled housing schemes by improving development viability.

The Public Sector Fraud Authority is inviting public sector organisations to use its Fraud Risk Assessment (FRA) Accelerator tool to support assessments of the risk of fraud against public sector spending, schemes and projects. The tool is now in the 'public beta' stage, and is available to be used by all public bodies. It will as part of its outputs identify types of individual likely to commit fraud.

Law360: The Labour government has confirmed that there are still plans to continue to explore whether a small, focused government consolidator, run by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), is still a possible consolidation option for those defined benefit (DB) schemes less attractive to commercial providers.

Law360: A government update on 6 March 2024 in the Spring Budget on policy plans for pension pots for life for retirement savers appeared to signal a more cautious tone after pushback from the sector, financial experts have noted.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has released a notice to vary the restriction order issued by Sir Brian Leveson during the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the press, signed by the DCMS Secretary of State, Lucy Frazer, and the Secretary of State for the Home Department, James Cleverly. Frazer and Cleverly have decided to vary the Final Restriction Order pursuant to section 20(7) of the Inquiries Act 2005 (IA 2005). The variation was requested by the claimants to allow documentation provided to the Leveson Inquiry to be disclosed for the purposes of the legal proceedings after claims brought against Associated Newspapers Limited by Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, Elizabeth Hurley, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Sir Simon Hughes, Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex and Sadie Frost Law. The Daily Mail ledger cards recording payments to private investigators and the Mail on Sunday ledger cards recording payments to private investigators will therefore be disclosed for the legal proceedings.

Corporate Crime analysis: Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) require entities in the regulated sector, typically banks and financial institutions, to notify law enforcement where client activity might indicate money laundering or terrorist financing. An efficient and effective SARs regime will result in the provision of quality information to law enforcement, but in practice too many SARs of poor quality are submitted. This observation formed a central part of the Law Commission’s report on the SARs regime published in June 2019. It made recommendations designed to improve the quality of SARs by providing clear guidance to financial institutions. At the heart of its proposals were establishing an Advisory Board with oversight for the regime and issuing statutory guidance to assist with when a SAR should be made. Gary Pons, barrister at 5 St Andrews Hill, considers the key recommendations the government has accepted and how these will reform the anti-money laundering (AML) regime, the recommendations the government has rejected and the impact of these, as well ashow the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA 2023) has helped reform the AML regime so far.

Law360: The government did not ignore a parliamentary report that condemned historic state failures to properly inform women their state pension age had changed, but came to a 'different conclusion' in a 'rare, but not unprecedented' move, the Pensions Minister told Parliament on 17 March 2025.