Law360: On 31 October 2024 the government unveiled the detail of its decision to transfer £1.5 billion to the pensions belonging to 112,000 former mine workers, resulting in a 32% increase in their annual pension payments and undoing an ‘historic injustice.’

Law360: The government has unveiled a raft of pension reforms that it said will dramatically boost the savings of millions of UK workers when it laid the Pension Schemes Bill before Parliament on 5 June 2025.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Export Control Joint Unit and Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has updated the Russian sanctions guidance to include licencing grounds relating to Schedule 3DA revenue generating goods.

The Cabinet Office has updated the Sourcing Playbook to incorporate an update to the accompanying financial viability risk assessment tool, used by contracting authorities to help assess the economic and financial standing of potential suppliers. The financial viability risk assessment tool was previously updated on 17 January 2025. Further updates to the Sourcing Playbook are expected in due course.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) and United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) have updated the application guidance for the United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) and the contact information for the UKSV Helpdesk. The guidance has been updated in light of the introduction of the new level 1B, and both the guidance and the UKSV contact information have been updated to reflect fact that the the new UKSV Helpdesk Service will replace the DBS Enquiry Centre on 12 December 2022.

The Government Equalities Office, Office for Equality and Opportunity, and Women and Equalities Unit have published updated guidance on creating action plans for employers with 250 or more employees. The updated guidance, published on 7 April 2026, includes step-by-step guidance on creating an action plan, including sections on understanding organisational issues, choosing actions, writing supporting narratives, submitting plans and tracking outcomes. The statutory guidance on gender pay gap reporting has also been updated to link to the action plans guidance.

The Cabinet Office has updated stakeholders on the final preparations for the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) regime go-live on 24 February 2025. Priorities in the remaining weeks include the publication of ‘how-to’ guidance for suppliers, onboarding contracting authorities to the central digital platform, and promotion of related stakeholder guidance and events. The update also confirms that the National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) is being finalised and will be the subject of a separate update once the NPPS is published.

The Cabinet Office has updated stakeholders on the latest preparations to enable the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) regime to go live on 24 February 2025. Reiterating the government’s commitment to the implementation timeline, there are a number of updates on progress towards this, including: the introduction of the draft Procurement Act 2023 (Consequential and Other Amendments) Regulations 2025 (making legislative amendments required to enable the go-live); work on the new National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS); and updates on the central digital platform and testing of the enhanced Find a Tender Service (FTS). The Cabinet Office has also published further guidance materials and templates on covered procurement objectives and the competitive flexible procedure, as well as announcing further events and webinars to take place in 2025 to aid stakeholder preparation. Further releases are anticipated in the weeks leading up to the February 2025 go-live.

Law360: The government must step in to mandate faster retirement saving transfers, a pensions provider warned on 28 April 2025, saying that in some cases customers have been left waiting three years for the process to complete.

Law360: The Association of Investment Companies (AIC) on 25 July 2025 has urged the government to amend the Pension Schemes Bill to include investment in private assets via investment companies within the scope of its reserve powers contained in the Bill.

Law360: The government should ban pension providers from offering cash incentives for savers to switch plans because the practice encourages people to ignore the 'fine print' and move over to a worse option, new research by a provider of retirement savings plans suggests.

Law360: The government should abandon plans to transform the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) into a state-backed consolidator of smaller retirement plans, a consultancy has warned.