damages'>Liquidated and ascertained damages (LADs or LDs)

The Labour Exploitation Advisory Group (LEAG) has published a briefing examining how lessons from Australia’s Workplace Justice Visa (WJV) could enhance access to workers’ rights in the UK. It finds that structural barriers linked to restrictive visa regimes and the limitations of existing redress routes are preventing migrant workers from safely asserting their rights. While recent reforms such as the Employment Rights Act (ERA) and the planned Fair Work Agency (FWA) signal progress, they fall short of protecting individuals whose immigration status is tied to their employer, a factor that discourages reporting abuse or leaving exploitative work due to the fear of losing legal status.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has confirmed the Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) of the global Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) system as the international governance body (IGB) for the globally harmonised identifiers used to track over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives transactions.

Low Enriched Uranium: enriched uranium that contains less than 20% of uranium-235.

An IAEA owned and controlled facility located at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Oskemen, Kazakhstan which maintains a 90 metric tonne reserve of LEU in case there is disruption of existing fuel supply arrangements in member states due to exceptional circumstances and LEU cannot be obtained by any other means.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has published analysis identifying £13bn in untapped economic potential across older industrial towns and cities in England. The analysis, which isolated local economic factors from national and regional trends, calls for government support including clarified growth fund operations, properly resourced councils, transparent funding formulas and long-term investment commitments to unlock this potential.

The Local Government Association (LGA) and County Councils Network (CCN) have commissioned an independent review of the government’s proposed reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system in England, informed by feedback from local authorities. The review concludes that the reforms represent a significant opportunity to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND by creating a more inclusive education system, strengthening early intervention, and improving consistency and fairness. Local authorities broadly supported key proposals, including National Inclusion Standards, a revised SEND Code of Practice, Individual Support Plans (ISPs), reforms to Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), increased funding for mainstream inclusion, and measures to expand specialist provision. The review finds that these reforms could reduce reliance on statutory plans, improve support within mainstream settings, and create a more coherent and sustainable SEND system.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has published analysis warning that councils in England face a £7 billion funding gap by 2028/29, despite recent funding increases and the introduction of a multi-year funding settlement. The LGA states that councils will face additional cost pressures equivalent to 22% of current spending, driven by rising demand for homelessness support, children's services, adult social care, home-to-school transport and new national requirements, including Simpler Recycling and the Emissions Trading Scheme. It warns that, without additional funding, residents could experience longer waits for adult social care assessments, increased homelessness and reductions in neighbourhood services, including road maintenance, libraries, parks and waste collections.

The Local Government Association (LGA) and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) have launched a pilot leadership programme to help senior officers in non-digital roles build digital confidence and AI leadership capability to drive service modernisation across councils and communities. The pilot aims to develop a shared digital language, support strategic alignment and improve place-based outcomes, with the first phase focused on discovery and design to shape a curriculum that reflects the realities of local and regional government, followed by a second phase delivering learning content to a small cohort. The programme focuses on plain English and practical leadership and responds to LGA research showing that 48% of councils report management-level digital skills gaps.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has urged the Chancellor to provide sufficient funding for family help and children’s services in the forthcoming Budget, citing increasing demand and financial pressures on councils. According to the LGA, the Department for Education (DfE) figures show that 81,770 children were in council care as of 31 March 2025, an increase of almost 18% compared to 69,460 in 2015. The LGA also highlighted previous data showing over 600 daily child protection investigations by councils. It also notes that councils have overspent on children’s social care by an average of 14.2% annually between 2022–23 and 2024–25, with 2025–26 budgets planning a 10.1% increase.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has responded to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)'s February 2026 consultation on proposed reforms to the Social Work Bursary (SWB) and the Education Support Grant (ESG), calling for social work funding models to be aligned with comparable public service professions, including nursing, allied health and teaching. Drawing on its 2026 Adult Social Care Employer Standards Health Check survey, published on 22 April 2026, the LGA reports that 52% of adult social workers are handling increasingly complex and severe caseloads, while capacity and resources have not kept pace with demand. It highlights ongoing workforce pressures, including high vacancy rates, retention challenges and placement shortages and calls for strengthened financial support for social work students. The LGA supports the use of a Social Work Hardship fund open to all student groups and a needs-based approach to ESG allocation. It emphasises that both the SWB and ESG schemes are essential and that support for undergraduate and postgraduate training routes must be maintained, without one being prioritised at the expense of the other. It also proposes reforms to widen participation among care-experienced, disabled, low-income and mature students, improve travel reimbursement, support return-to-practice routes and enhance the quality of practice placements.

The Local Government Association (LGA) is calling for increased council funding in the upcoming Autumn Budget, following data from the Department for Education that revealed 230,590 section 47 child protection investigations in England for the year ending 31 March 2025. These investigations averaged 631 cases per day. Key factors driving this rising demand include an increase in mental health concerns and domestic abuse, along with a growing number of referrals to children's social services from schools. Despite budget increases, councils spent 14.2% more on children's social care annually between 2022–23 and 2024–25, even though planned budgets for 2025–26 indicate only a 10.1% rise. This overspending has forced councils to adopt unsustainable emergency measures, such as making in-year cuts to other services and tapping into depleting reserves to balance their books.