The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed that the government is set to announce a record £7.9bn flood defence programme as part of its upcoming Infrastructure Strategy. The ten-year investment programme aims to protect homes, businesses and critical infrastructure from flooding through measures such as high-performance flood barriers and wetland restoration. For every £1 invested, approximately £8 in economic damage is expected to be prevented. The programme includes a £4.2bn allocation for 2026–27 to 2028–29, as outlined in the government’s 2025 Spending Review, covering both capital and resources, including the construction of new defences and the maintenance of existing ones.

Employment analysis: The government has confirmed that, following its consultation on retained EU employment law reforms, it will legislate to remove the effects of the judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU in CCOO v Deutsche Bank SAE (CCOO). The judgment in CCOO went beyond the obligations on employers under the Working Time Regulations 1998 in that it required them to set up an objective, reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured. Employers will remain obliged to keep the records that are specified in regulation 9 of the Working Time Regulations 1998.

The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford has reported that the UK government plans to consult on proposals requiring people granted refugee status to meet additional conditions to access welfare benefits. Department for Work and Pensions data show that as of December 2024, around 112,000 people with refugee status—equivalent to 66% of adults in this category—were claiming Universal Credit. The findings indicate that recently recognised refugees are less likely to be employed and therefore more reliant on benefits, though employment rates improve with time spent in the UK. The consultation will examine potential changes to the eligibility framework for refugees receiving social security support.

The government has confirmed that it is set to consult on whether the Flexible Apportionment Arrangement (FAA) regime should be strengthened, following a ‘novel’ transaction in which an asset manager assumed responsibility for the assets and liabilities of a sponsoring employer's defined benefit (DB) pension scheme. In a written ministerial statement on 16 June 2026, Pensions Minister Torsten Bell said the government would review whether the existing FAA framework, introduced in 2012 to facilitate corporate restructurings and business transactions, remains fit for purpose as the pensions market evolves.  A consultation on potential changes to the FAA regime is set to be launched ‘in due course’.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that it intends to consult on the threshold requiring pension scheme members to obtain financial advice before transferring certain pension benefits, following growing scrutiny of whether the £30,000 limit remains appropriate in light of inflation and rising advice costs. In a written parliamentary answer to Labour MP Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow West) on 20 October 2025, Pensions Minister Torsten Bell said the government remains committed to ensuring pension transfers are made “on an informed basis,” and that members are made aware of any valuable guarantees they might be giving up when transferring out of a safeguarded benefits arrangement.

HM Treasury (HMT) has announced that, following industry and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) engagement, the government has decided to exempt domestic premises suppliers from requiring credit broking permissions to offer buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) products as a payment option.

HM Treasury has announced that the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme will be extended by a year to the end of December 2023, helping people with five percent deposits on to the property ladder. According to the Treasury, the scheme has already helped over 24,000 households since it was launched in April 2021, by using the government to offer lenders the financial guarantees they need to provide mortgages that cover the other 95%, subject to the usual affordability checks, on a house worth up to £600,000. The government has also increased the level where first-time buyers start paying stamp duty from £300,000 to £425,000, and have allowed first-time buyers to get relief on properties costing up to £625,000, as opposed to £500,000 previously. Both of these measures, however, are time-limited to April 2025.

Law360: The High Court has granted approval for a challenge to the government's decision on compensation for failure to inform women that their pension age had changed, a move activists have termed a 'landmark moment'.

Corporate Crime analysis: England and Wales has the highest per capita prison population in Western Europe and overcrowding has been spiralling out of control in recent years. While prisons technically ran out of space some time ago, politicians have recently been warning the public with increasing alarm that the system is at breaking point. The issue reached its nadir last summer, when demand came uncomfortably close to exceeding supply and striking claims were made that the police would not be able to arrest suspects nor the courts able to conduct trials as there would simply be no room to detain inmates. Projections for the immediate future only compounded concerns, with figures suggesting that there would soon be thousands more prisoners than spaces available to incarcerate them. The government at the time therefore commissioned the Independent Sentencing Review, led by then Lord Chancellor David Gauke, to consider how to reduce the prison population. Alex McHugh, barrister at Pump Court Chambers, provides an analysis of the review and its key recommendations.

The government has published an update on the Payments Vision Delivery Committee (PVDC), together with its updated terms of reference. The PVDC is being established to set strategy for retail payments infrastructure; ensure co-ordination between the regulators; ensure the overall burden of regulation remains proportionate; and provide a mechanism to facilitate prioritisation decisions on initiatives.

Law360: The government said it will soon launch the delayed second phase of its pensions review, in what experts hope could be the biggest shakeup for the sector for 20 years.

HM Treasury (HMT) has announced that the government will lay two statutory instruments in July 2025 to implement the UK’s commitments under the Berne Financial Services Agreement, which aims to enhance the cross-border market access of financial services between the UK and Switzerland. The UK and Switzerland have committed to ensuring the Agreement is fully implemented by the end of 2025 so firms can start registering to use the Agreement on 1 January 2026.