Public Law analysis: The court found that a decision by the Minister for the Cabinet Office to directly award a contract for research to inform the government’s communications strategy during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to the interested party, Public First, was unlawful. Public First had personal and professional connections to both the Minister himself and to Dominic Cummings (then special adviser to the Prime Minister). The judge accepted that the defendant had been entitled to rely on the truncated procedure under regulation 32(2)(c) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015) to make the award, and accepted that the term of six months was not disproportionate. However, the use of regulation 32(2)(c) did not relieve the defendant of the requirement to conduct the procurement so as to demonstrate a fair and impartial process of selection. In the circumstances, the failure to consider any other research agency by reference to objective criteria gave rise to an appearance of bias. Written by Siân McGibbon, barrister at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square.

Public Law analysis: Two campaigning organisations (the Good Law Project (GLP) and Runnymede Trust (RT)) bought judicial review proceedings against the policies and processes behind three public appointments. The appointments were not subject to open competition and were awarded to individuals known to the decision-maker. The claimants argued this was indirectly discriminatory, because the decision-makers were less likely to know non-white and/or disabled candidates, placing them at a disadvantage. They also alleged breaches of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), and in one instance, apparent bias. The court found neither claimant had standing to bring the indirect discrimination or apparent bias claims. They did not have a particular interest in the decisions nor were representative of an identifiable group in society affected by the decisions. In any event, each appointment process was shaped by its individual circumstances and the urgent need in the context of the pandemic. There were as a matter of fact no potentially discriminatory policies. RT had standing to bring the PSED challenge, and two of the appointment processes breached the PSED (the challenge to the third being time-barred). Written by Jack Castle, barrister at Henderson Chambers.

Public Law analysis: The current Prime Minister’s long running battle with the Seven Principles of Public Life continues to gather pace. Johnson’s actions relating to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic ‘partygate’ scandal have arguably violated each of the principles established by the Nolan Committee in 1995: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. The Prime Minister’s full house of ethical violations concerning his attendance and subsequent denials of social gatherings held in Downing Street, contrary to lockdown restrictions, have also yielded Fixed Penalty Notices from the police for him, his Chancellor, his wife, and other government officials, with the prospect of more to follow. Yet the Prime Minister remains committed to staying in post and has refused to resign. Mike Gordon, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Liverpool, considers whether the Ministerial Code is the best reference point by which to assess the Prime Minister’s actions, and what impact its central status could have on the debate around whether the Prime Minister should resign.

Dispute Resolution analysis: This topical case arose from the failure (due to flight restrictions resulting from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic) of Travelex Banknotes Ltd (TBL) to provide banknotes to Rawbank SA (the largest bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo), resulting in a claim for $US 60,072,000. The court subsequently considered on an application for summary judgment the rate of pre-action interest, whether a Part 36 offer was genuine and if so, the consequences, and whether damages should be payable immediately, in circumstances where Travelex Banknotes Ltd presented no defence and were restructuring to avoid insolvency. Mr Justice Zacaroli granted judgment. Rejecting Rawbank SA’s argument for interest at a commercial borrowing rate, the court awarded pre-action interest at the contractual rate of 2% above Barclays Bank base rate up to the end of the relevant Part 36 period for acceptance (25 May 2020) and 8% judgment debt interest thereafter, costs of the action and application awarded on the standard basis to 25 May 2020 and indemnity costs thereafter, with payment of damages within 14 days. Written by Richard Allen, costs lawyer and senior pricing consultant with Burcher Jennings, validatum and virtual pricing director.

Restructuring & Insolvency analysis: The High Court of Justice sanctioned a scheme of arrangement for Light SA (the Scheme), a Brazilian company, under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006). The Scheme involved two groups of creditors holding notes issued by Light SA's subsidiaries, Light Energia SA (Light Energia) and Light Serviços de Eletricidade SA (Light SESA) (together the Note Issuers) with Light SA acting as the guarantor. Both Note Issuers are regulated entities in Brazil, and their business is the generation (in the case of Light Energia) and distribution (in the case of Light SESA) of electricity in Brazil. The restructuring, approved by 99.4% of voting creditors and effective in Brazil, aims to facilitate new capital raising and note exchanges to address financial challenges, including losses incurred due to widespread energy theft and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Scheme offers benefits over the Brazilian judicial restructuring process, including options for New York law securities and international enforceability. Mr Justice Trower found sufficient connection to the UK jurisdiction and anticipated international recognition, particularly in Brazil, thus sanctioning the scheme. Written by Brian Rostron, associate at Addleshaw Goddard LLP.

The Work Rights Centre (WoRC) has published a report examining the growing backlog in employment tribunals, notable hearing delays and the impact on access to employment justice. MOJ data shows that by 31 December 2025 there were 65,117 unresolved cases across England, Wales and Scotland, a 43% increase over the previous year, with the volume of cases received now exceeding the number being disposed of. The report also highlights that since the COVID-19 pandemic ended the number of cases has continued to increase and the gap between cases received and disposed of is widening, leading to significant delays for both simple and complex hearings with some Tribunals with London South, reporting delays of several years. The report further reveals that these delays are causing claimants to forgo their cases and compromising the quality of evidence while disproportionately disadvantaging low-income claimants, disabled workers, migrant workers and litigants in person. Such prolonged delays negatively impact access to a fair hearing and remedy, reduce prospects for settlement and monetary awards and erode public trust in the formal legal system.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published its annual statistics, reporting 126 worker fatalities in Great Britain (GB) between April 2025 and March 2026. Excluding the years affected by the coronavirus pandemic, HSE says this is provisionally the lowest annual total on record. HSE has also published new international analysis comparing fatal workplace injury rates across 35 countries, concluding that GB continues to be one of the safest places in the world to work. Construction recorded the highest number of worker deaths (25), followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing (22), while agriculture, forestry and fishing continued to have the highest fatal injury rate per 100,000 workers. Falls from height remained the leading cause of fatal injuries, accounting for 31 deaths. An additional 104 members of the public died in work-related incidents during the same period. The HSE has also published annual mesothelioma statistics, showing 2,146 deaths in GB in 2024 due to past asbestos exposure. This represents a decrease of 109 compared with 2023 and is below the 10-year average of 2,508 deaths per year between 2011 and 2020. HSE expects annual mesothelioma deaths to continue declining as cases increasingly reflect historical exposure to asbestos before the 1980s.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has found that the Home Office failed to adequately address the risk of exploitation and non-compliance under the skilled worker visa scheme, particularly in the care sector. In its 4 July 2025 report, the PAC criticises the department for failing to prevent abuse following the scheme’s 2022 expansion to support adult social care, highlighting serious weaknesses in safeguarding, compliance monitoring, and tracking of visa expiries. While the expansion helped alleviate workforce shortages during the pandemic, it also exposed migrant workers to exploitation, with evidence submitted to the inquiry detailing cases of debt bondage, excessive working hours and poor living conditions. Despite early signs of abuse, the Home Office was slow to respond and does not hold data on how many visa holders have been identified as potential victims of modern slavery. The PAC further found that the department lacks key data on visa compliance, including whether workers leave the UK at the end of their stay, are re-sponsored, or remain unlawfully, and has not analysed exit check data since the route’s introduction. In light of the recent decision to end overseas recruitment for care workers, the PAC warns of further risks unless cross-government workforce strategies are coordinated and calls for a joined-up approach to tackling exploitation and addressing domestic skills shortages.

The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford has published an analysis of HM Revenue and Customs payroll data examining how migrant workforce participation and earnings have changed since 2014. It finds that the number of non-EU-origin employees more than doubled to 4.2 million by 2025, accounting for all net labour force growth since before the pandemic. More than 1.2 million non-EU migrants entered the employee workforce in 2022 and 2023, while the number of new EU-origin employees declined to around 45,000 in 2025, almost 90% lower than in 2015. These numbers include persons issued with work visas as well as international students who can work, dependants of people arriving on student and work visas (who can work), humanitarian arrivals from Ukraine and Hong Kong, as well and people who moved to the UK in earlier years but had not worked before. For EU-origin migrants the numbers will also include people with leave under the EU Settlement Scheme who have subsequently started working.

Competition analysis: In his Opinion in the Tondela Case delivered on 15 May 2025, Advocate General (‘AG’) Emiliou at the Court of Justice of the EU argues that no-poach agreements entered into between competitors have all the characteristics to be considered prima facie restrictive of competition ‘by object’, unless the content, the legal and economic context and the objectives of the specific agreement at issue cast doubt on the harmful nature of the agreement or if the no-poach agreement is ancillary to a transaction which is itself not anti-competitive. In application of the Meca-Medina case law, AG Emiliou argues that the objective of the no-poach agreement in question (ensuring a fair and orderly end of the 2019/2020 football season during coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic) was worthy of protection under EU law and absent any equally effective and less restrictive measures necessary and proportionate to that objective. Written by Peter Giese, Kirsten Baubkus-Gérard, Elisa Götz, lawyers at CMS.

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has published three interlocking studies on bioinformatics quality controls for genomic surveillance, with implications for emerging regulatory frameworks. The JRC said the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that rapid genomic sequencing often prioritised speed over consistency, increasing the risk of inaccurate results that could affect diagnostics, epidemiological modelling and vaccine development. It identified two main priorities for reliable surveillance: maintaining the integrity of raw sequencing data and systematically benchmarking bioinformatics tools to ensure accurate analysis. The studies covered the development of PathoSeq-QC, a workflow designed to improve transparency, reproducibility and validation of genomic analyses; an investigation with Slovenian laboratories showing that apparent SARS-CoV-2 mutations were artefacts caused by bioinformatics pipeline errors; and a benchmarking study assessing four tools used to detect SARS-CoV-2 subgenomic RNAs using synthetic and real-world datasets. The JRC said the studies together establish a quality assurance framework for genomic surveillance and support wider adoption of decision-support workflows, cross-validation mechanisms and standardised benchmarking datasets. It also noted that organisations including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the World Health Organization are increasingly integrating omics technologies into regulatory and surveillance systems, increasing the importance of robust quality controls to avoid misleading public health conclusions.

The Insolvency Service has announced that Cardiff businesswoman Rupali Wagh was sentenced to two years and three months’ imprisonment on 17 July 2026 after pleading guilty to five counts of fraud relating to fraudulent Bounce Back Loan applications made during the coronavirus pandemic. Following an Insolvency Service investigation, it was established that between May and September 2020 Wagh fraudulently obtained £216,250 in Bounce Back Loans across four companies by inflating business turnover figures, submitting duplicate loan applications for companies that were only entitled to one loan, and making false declarations. According to the Insolvency Service, Wagh transferred much of the loan proceeds into her personal bank account, using the funds to repay personal debts, purchase stocks and shares, and make overseas transfers rather than for legitimate business purposes. During the investigation, Wagh initially attempted to attribute one of the applications to a third party before admitting that she had acted alone. The Insolvency Service is seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.