Law360, London: Anti-fraud enforcement agencies will soon fire the starting gun on major reforms that will hold companies criminally liable for fraud—but the race to court will be slow, and it will take years before prosecutors can claim success, lawyers say.

Law360: The new failure to prevent fraud offence has many devotees, not least the former Serious Fraud Office (SFO) director Lisa Osofsky, who proclaimed it 'a game changer for law enforcement'. But whose game is being changed? And to what end?

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced that the Lloyds Banking Group has donated £250,000 in funding to three nature restoration projects in England via the 'Projects for Nature online' platform. This follows the government's update of its Nature Markets Framework, which highlighted the actions taken and upcoming plans to increase private finance into ecosystem services in England. The announcement also follows the launch of the British Standards Institution’s consultation on their first Nature Investment Standard, which establishes extensive guidelines for UK nature markets.

Environment analysis: On 19 June 2025, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) issued new supplementary guidance for assessing the effects of downstream scope 3 emissions on climate from offshore oil and gas projects. Dr Lois Lane of Cornerstone Barristers explores the background to the new guidance and what it might mean for practitioners.

Employment analysis: The government has published new guidance on the holiday pay and entitlement reforms from 1 January 2024. The guidance covers the meaning of an irregular hours worker and a part-year worker, holiday entitlement for these workers, carry-over of leave and holiday pay calculations.

On 2 June 2026, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) published a new collection of guidance titled 'Biodiversity net gain: nationally significant infrastructure projects'. The collection brings together guidance relevant to biodiversity net gain (BNG) for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) ahead of the mandatory BNG requirement coming into force for NSIPs on 2 November 2026.

The Home Office has confirmed in an update to its ‘Online immigration status (eVisa)’ guidance page that Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) will no longer be issued from 31 October 2024. This information was previously sent in an email to stakeholders on 26 September 2024, but has not been announced publicly on GOV.UK until today. In a separate development, on 14 October 2024 the Home Office updated its ‘Travel Documents: No Time Limit’ guidance for caseworkers, including to reduce the general evidential burden as regards evidence of residence in line with the letter from the Minister of Immigration, Seema Malhotra MP, to the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association and others of 1 October 2024.

The Home Office has issued further guidance on the rollout of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme, further to the laying of Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules HC 217 on 10 September 2024. In line with the Rules, the new guidance confirms the dates that applications will be open for nationals of the listed countries (and associated territories). Full details are set out below.

The Cabinet Office has published new guidance on the latest transparency requirements to come into effect under the phased implementation of the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023). The guide details the commencement of PA 2023, ss 69–71 and below threshold identifier requirements. PA 2023, s 69, requiring publication of payments compliance notices (demonstrating compliance with 30-day payment terms), commenced on 1 January 2026, with the first notices due for publication between 31 March and 29 April 2026. From that point notices will be due within 30 days of the last day of each reporting period. PA 2023, s 70, mandating quarterly publication of contract payment information (on payments over £30,000 under public contracts), commences on 1 April 2026 and applies only to procurement procedures commenced on or after that date. Contract payment information must be published within 30 days of each quarter end. PA 2023, s 71, requiring contract performance notices for key performance indicators (KPIs) on contracts valued above £5m annually and upon termination, and breach reporting within 30 days, commenced on 1 January 2026. Finally, from 1 April 2026, contracting authorities must obtain unique identifiers from suppliers awarded notifiable below-threshold contracts valued at £12,000 or more for central government and £30,000 or more for sub-central authorities. Where applicable, the guidance notes relevant exclusions and timescales for procurements regulated by the Welsh Ministers, and various contract types including utilities contracts awarded by private utilities and concession contracts. Annex A to the guidance provides a helpful reminder of the key dates.

Family analysis: On 2 March 2026, the Office of the President of the Family Division published new guidance for litigants in person on preparing court bundles for family proceedings to accompany the amended Family Procedure Rules 2010, PD 27A, which is in force from 2 March 2026. Practitioners should note that this supersedes the guidance on e-bundles for use in the Family Court and Family Division dated 21 December 2021, and the general guidance on electronic court bundles dated 29 November 2021 no longer applies in the context of family proceedings. The guidance applies to court cases in England and Wales which are being heard in the Family Court or the Family Division of the High Court (wherever the court may be sitting).

The Home Office has updated its Exclusion from the UK guidance. This guidance looks at how caseworkers should consider making decisions to exclude a person from the UK via a personal decision of the Secretary of State, on the ground that it is conducive to the public good and, where applicable, on the grounds of public policy, public security or public health; and exclusion orders under the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016, SI 2016/1052, where a person is still protected by the Citizens’ Rights (Application Deadline and Temporary Protection) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, SI 2020/1209. The updated guidance contains a new section on a ground for refusal for elites linked to the Russian State and clarification on what constitutes state threats (in the National Security section).

The Home Office has published its new ‘Code of Practice about the sanctions for non-compliance with the biometric registration regulations’, further to linked amendments to the Immigration (Biometric Registration) Regulations 2008, SI 2008/3048 (Biometric Regs 2008) made on 27 March 2025, and section 13 of the UK Borders Act 2007. This updated Code of Practice was previously published in draft form, and reflects the transition from physical to digital documents in the form of an eVisa. Key changes include mandatory facial image updates every ten years for adults under 70 (five years for under-16s), the introduction of share codes for status verification, and a comprehensive sanctions framework for non-compliance. For those who fail to update their facial image, and other maintenance breaches, the normal sanction will be preventing the person from creating a ‘share code’ necessary to share their status with a third-party checker. The Home Office has also now issued new guidance for Home Office caseworkers and Border Force staff on applying the sanctions.