The Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) has reported that landlord A2Dominion is making improvements in areas including defects, repairs, leasehold management and vulnerabilities following an order by the HOS. This order follows an independent review into the landlord’s response to leaks, damp and mould following several severe maladministration findings.

The Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) has urged landlords to create an ethical complaint culture and follow the Complaint Handling Failure Order (CHFO). This follows a report into the CHFO which showed a rise in non-compliance with the Order. 10 landlords failed to comply with CHFOs this quarter.

The Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) has written an open letter to Chief Executives of social housing providers on concerns regarding the handling of window-related complaints. HOS has noted that these issues often involve more complex issues such as design concerns and disrepair, due to lack of funding and underinvestment in social housing. HOS’s casework highlights three main issues including that landlords often fail to consider individual household circumstances during risk assessments, there are delays in repairs and there is inadequate communication with residents during risk assessments. HOS has encouraged landlords to conduct more thorough risk assessments based on individual circumstances, justify decisions to defer repairs and provide clear and accessible information to residents regarding their new windows.

The Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) has said that its latest insight report has shown that 47% of the complaints raised by tenants are in London postcodes. HOS has noted that this rate is disproportionate, with no other region of England having such a wide gap between the proportion of social housing and complaints.

Health Physics / Health Physicist

1 Health Protection Agency: An NDPB with a role to provide an integrated approach to protecting the UK public from threats to their health from infectious diseases, environmental hazards and radiation. 2 Hinkley Point A (power station under decommissioning) which is part of the NDA portfolio.

Hinkley Point B (Power Station): AGR power station operated by EDF Energy.

Hinkley Point C: A new nuclear power station currently under construction near Bridgewater, Somerset, England. NNB GenCo is constructing two EPR reactors capable of generating a total of up to 3,260MW of electricity.

1 Habitats Regulation Assessment 2 Hartlepool (Power Station): AGR power station operated by EDF Energy.

The Health Research Authority (HRA) in collaboration with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) have announced that the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 has been enacted into law on 10 April 2025, initiating a 12-month implementation period and becoming fully effective on 10 April 2026. Key changes include: mandatory trial registration on World Health Organization-recognised public registers, required publication of results summaries, and a combined review system for simultaneous ethics and regulatory approvals. The regulations aim to enhance participant safety while streamlining the approval process for clinical trials in the UK.

The Health Research Authority (HRA) has outlined new legal requirements for clinical trials coming into force in spring 2026. The regulations will make it mandatory for researchers to register trials in public registries, publish results within 12 months of completion, and share findings with participants in an accessible format. The HRA reports current voluntary registration compliance at 92%, with commercial trials showing higher rates than non-commercial studies. The authority is developing guidance with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to support implementation, including provisions for exemptions in cases such as national security.

The Health Research Authority (HRA) has announced that it is launching a pilot on 1 April 2024 to determine the possibility of streamlining the approval process for sub-studies within research programmes. The pilot will involve the Research Ethics Committee reviewing the overall study applications for ethics approval. It will evaluate the feasibility of approving sub-studies connected to the main study if the main study is approved, and thereby not subjecting the sub-study to the same process as the main study. It aims to provide a more proportionate process to providing ethics approval to studies that are part of the same programme of research, and help save researchers time and allow them to start their studies quicker. The types of programme which would be suitable for the pilot are where the individual sub-studies are connected and collectively aim to meet a defined aim. The pilot excludes Clinical Trials of Medicinal Products (CTIMP), research which involves the administration of radioactive substances and research involving adults with incapacity taking place in Scotland.