Law360: Large pension schemes in the UK must connect their plans to the government's long-awaited Pensions Dashboard Program (PDP) by the end of April 2025, according to new guidance.

The government has published the results of its annual statutory review of the automatic enrolment earnings trigger and qualifying earnings band, concluding that the current thresholds for the 2026/27 tax year will remain unchanged. Specifically, the earnings trigger — the minimum level of earnings at which workers are automatically enrolled into a workplace pension scheme — will stay at £10,000, while the lower and upper limits of the qualifying earnings band will remain at £6,240 and £50,270 respectively. These levels were maintained at their 2025/26 values following analysis of economic factors and the policy aim of ensuring automatic enrolment continues to work effectively for both employers and employees.

Law360: The government has launched the first stage of its review into pensions as it focuses on generating more investment from the £800 billion defined contribution sector into the economy. The Local Government Pension Scheme is also the target of the pensions review with the government considering ways in which to unlock its investment potential while also tackling its £2 billion spend on fees and costs.

The government has launched its new 32-step Disability Action Plan, in an effort to make the UK the most accessible place in the world for disabled people to live, work and thrive. This Action Plan came about following the July–Oct 2023 consultation on the issue. From an employment perspective, the plan covers ongoing improvements to the Disability Confident scheme. This aims to provide employers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace. The Disability Unit (DU) aims to publish research into the accessibility of private sector products and services in spring 2024. Another action point is that the DU will work to understand issues such as existing training schemes and their success for disabled consumers and businesses, the value of disability awareness training, accessibility across sectors, whether disabled people are aware of their rights and know how to enforce them.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has announced that the government launched a consultation and national conversation on children’s use of mobile phones and social media. This is accompanied by immediate action to strengthen and enforce mobile phone bans in schools, with the aim of improving children’s wellbeing and ensuring safer online experiences. The government confirmed that Ofsted will check compliance with mobile phone bans at every school inspection, supported by clearer guidance requiring schools to be phone-free by default and targeted support for schools facing implementation challenges. The consultation will seek views from parents, young people and civil society on further measures, including restricting children’s access to social media, raising the digital age of consent, improving age assurance, limiting addictive design features and introducing phone curfews, informed by international evidence, with a response due in the summer. Ministers stated that these proposals build on existing protections under the Online Safety Act 2023, including mandatory age checks and stronger regulatory enforcement by Ofcom. They also committed to publishing evidence-based screen time guidance for parents of children aged five to sixteen, alongside wider reforms on curriculum, digital and media literacy and the National Youth Strategy to support children’s development and wellbeing online and offline.

The government has launched an open consultation seeking feedback on measures to enhance the collective redundancy framework and protect employees from fire and rehire practices. For the collective redundancy framework, the government wants input on a proposal to extend the maximum period of the protective award that a tribunal can award. The government is considering to either increase the protective award that a tribunal can award from 90 to 180 days or to remove the cap on the protective award entirely. The government is also seeking views on whether interim relief should be provided to employees who bring claims for the protective award. For fire and rehire practises, the government is seeking feedback on whether interim relief should be available to employees filing an unfair dismissal claim under the new right which will be introduced by the Employment Rights Bill. The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 2 December 2024.

The Intellectual Property Office, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have launched a 10-week consultation on proposals to reform the UK's legal framework for copyright and AI. The consultation seeks to address uncertainties in the current system by introducing an exception to copyright law for AI training, while allowing rights holders to reserve their rights. It also proposes new transparency requirements for AI developers and explores issues related to personality rights in digital replicas. The government aims to balance the needs of the creative industries and the AI sector, with the consultation closing on 25 February 2025.

The Cabinet Office, together with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), has launched a consultation on proposals to introduce a voluntary national digital identity document (ID) for accessing public services. The consultation seeks views on the design, scope and governance of the proposed system. The government intends the digital ID to build on existing identity verification infrastructure. It would be voluntary, with no legal obligation to obtain or present it and existing non-digital routes to public services would remain available. The consultation also seeks views on matters including the minimum age for eligibility, the information to be included on the digital ID (such as proof of address), how the ID could be used across government services and what safeguards are required to ensure data protection, security and oversight. It also addresses how the digital ID would be issued, stored and verified, its potential use in right to work checks and its wider administrative and economic implications. The government will also establish a ‘People’s Panel for Digital ID’ of 100 to 120 individuals selected through sortition to inform next steps. The consultation closes on 5 May 2026.

HM Treasury, HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Transport have launched an open consultation on the potential tax impacts on private hire vehicle (PHV) sector. The consultation follows the judgments of Uber Britannia Ltd v Sefton Borough Council [2023] EWHC 1975 (KB) and Uber London Ltd v Transport for London [2021] EWHC 3290 (Admin). The consultation seeks views on how potential government interventions could mitigate the risk of adverse effects that the judgments could have on the PHV sector and its passengers. The consultation closes on 8 August 2024.

The government announced on 30 September 2025 the launch of a consultation on the fair pay agreement process in adult social care, and a £500m investment into the first fair pay agreement for workers in the sector.

The government has launched a consultation to seek views on the application of measures to address the one-sided flexibility in zero hours contracts. The government is considering to introduce a right to guaranteed hours based on the hours worked regularly and a right to reasonable notice for shifts, along with payment for shifts canceled or shortened on short notice. The consultation seeks feedback specifically on the application of these measures to agency workers. The government will be consulting at a later date on the implementation of these two measures more generally. The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 2 December 2024.

On 5 January 2026, HM Treasury and the Debt Management Office (DMO) launched a consultation on expanding and deepening the UK Treasury Bill (T-bill) market as announced in the Autumn Budget 2025. The government want to promote participation in the T-bill market through its primary market operations and the development of an active, liquid secondary market. T-bills are another source of finance for the government, issued weekly at auction by the DMO, which are sold at discount to their maturity value. They currently do not trade on any secondary market, so are generally held by investors to maturity, which can be between 1 day and 364 days after issue.