Practice Management analysis: This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW), which runs from 8–14 May, will be exploring the difference between ‘surviving or thriving’. Elizabeth Rimmer, CEO of LawCare, says there is still significant stigma about mental health in the legal profession which stops people seeking help.

A surviving spouse is the husband, wife or civil partner who outlives their partner and so remains legally recognised as their spouse at the date of death. The term is widely used in succession, probate, inheritance tax, family law and pensions practice across England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, with broadly consistent meaning.In many statutes, including intestacy and inheritance legislation, rights are expressly conferred on the “surviving spouse” or “surviving civil partner”. These may include priority to inherit on intestacy, legal rights or forced‑heirship claims (notably in Scotland and Ireland), provision under family provision legislation, and entitlement to widows’/widowers’ or survivors’ pensions and death‑in‑service benefits.A person will not be a surviving spouse if the marriage or civil partnership has been validly dissolved, annulled or otherwise terminated before death, or if a statutory rule (for example relating to nullity, polygamy, or unlawful killing of the deceased) prevents recognition. Disputes may arise over the validity of a marriage, competing putative spouses, or whether a foreign marriage is recognised, all of which directly affect who is treated in law as the surviving spouse.

When any organisation is forced to make a number of redundancies, the attention, quite rightly, is focused on those losing their roles. However, once the dust settles, the focus needs to be on those who survived round of cuts and may be experiencing a wide range of emotions. This Practice Note will guide you how to recognise and manage ‘Survivor Syndrome’ within your team, specifically, we will look at: • what is Survivor Syndrome? • how might different people react • how it affects the organisation • what the causes are • what the remedies are at an organisational level • what the remedies are at a local management level What is Survivor Syndrome? Survivor Syndrome identifies the range of negative reactions often experienced by those whose roles remain intact following a round of redundancies. Similar experiences have been described by those surviving a range of traumatic events and though in some people’s eyes, those people who survive a round of redundancies ‘should be grateful for having jobs’, it’s not always that simple and

When any organisation is forced to make a large number of redundancies, the attention, quite rightly, is focused on those losing their roles. However, once the dust settles the focus needs to be on those who survived the round of cuts and may be experiencing a wide range of emotions. This Practice Note will guide you in how to recognise and manage survivor syndrome within your team. Specifically, we will look at: • what is survivor syndrome? • how different people might react • how it affects the organisation • what the causes are • what the remedies are at an organisational level • what the remedies are at a local management level What is survivor syndrome? Survivor syndrome identifies the range of negative reactions often experienced by those whose roles remain intact following a round of redundancies. Similar experiences have been described by those surviving a range of traumatic events and, though in some people’s eyes, those people who survive a round of redundancies 'should be grateful for having jobs', it is not

The modern term for ‘widows and widowers’.

Survivors’ benefits are payments or other entitlements provided to a deceased person’s spouse, civil partner, dependants or other qualifying survivors under pension schemes, social security systems, insurance policies or employment arrangements. In UK pensions law (including England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) the term commonly refers to dependants’ or survivors’ pensions payable under occupational or personal pension schemes, often defined in scheme rules and influenced by legislation such as the Pension Schemes Act 1993 and related regulations. In Ireland, the concept arises under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 (for example, widow’s, widower’s or surviving civil partner’s pensions) and under occupational pension scheme rules. The expression “survivors’ benefits” itself is largely descriptive rather than a single, unified statutory term, and its precise scope depends on the governing statute, contract or scheme documentation. Key issues for practitioners include eligibility criteria (relationship status, financial dependency, cohabitation), interaction with inheritance and family provision regimes, taxation of benefits, and compliance with equality and non-discrimination requirements. Usage is broadly consistent across England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, though the underlying statutory frameworks and terminology differ.

Survivorship describes the legal consequence that, when one co-owner or beneficiary dies, their interest passes automatically to the surviving co-owner(s), rather than forming part of the deceased’s estate for succession purposes. Across England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, survivorship most commonly arises in joint tenancies of land or joint bank accounts, where the right of survivorship (jus accrescendi) means the surviving joint tenant(s) acquire the deceased’s share by operation of law. In Scottish property law, a similar outcome is often achieved through a survivorship destination clause in a title or contract, rather than through a joint tenancy concept. Survivorship is crucial in estate planning, co-ownership of property and contentious probate, as it can override provisions in a will and affect inheritance tax and capital acquisitions tax planning. It is also relevant to pension death benefits and life policies written in trust. The concept is primarily a descriptive one derived from common law and equity, though its effects interact with statutory regimes on succession, matrimonial and civil partnership property, insolvency and taxation in each jurisdiction. Careful drafting is required where parties intend to exclude, preserve or sever survivorship rights.

A suspect is a person whom the police or another investigating authority believe may have committed a criminal offence, based on some factual foundation rather than mere speculation. The term is primarily descriptive and used across criminal investigation, arrest, detention and charging decisions, rather than having a single, exhaustive statutory definition.In England and Wales, “suspect” features in Codes of Practice under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), particularly in relation to cautioning, interviews under caution and the point at which safeguards (such as access to legal advice) must be provided. Similar concepts apply in Northern Ireland under its PACE-equivalent legislation and codes.In Scotland, the equivalent notion arises in relation to “reasonable suspicion” for arrest and detention under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016, and the point at which a person is treated as a suspect triggers specific rights, including access to a solicitor.In Ireland, the term is widely used in Garda practice and case law, particularly on when constitutional and statutory rights (to legal advice, silence and fair procedures) are engaged.Across all jurisdictions, being treated as a suspect is a key threshold for procedural safeguards and potential criminal liability.

FORTHCOMING CHANGE relating to penalty reform calls for evidence and behavioural penalties reform: At Budget 2025, the government published a summary of responses to the consultation launched at Spring Statement 2025 on behavioural penalties reform and announced its intention to proceed with proposals to reform penalties for inaccuracies in tax returns and for failures to notify chargeability. This consultation followed two calls for evidence: • an initial call for evidence on ‘The Tax Administration Framework: Supporting a 21st Century tax system’ on 23 March 2021 and a summary of responses on 30 November 2021, and • a second call for evidence on ‘The Tax Administration Framework Review–enquiry and assessment powers, penalties, safeguards’, on 15 February 2024, followed by a summary of responses on 30 October 2024—this second call for evidence included potential options for the reform of penalties, including the reform of penalty suspension and penalty escalation for continued or repeated non-compliance The consultation outcome published at Budget 2025 sets out the government’s intention to develop draft legislation to reform the existing behavioural

Public Law analysis: The recent judgment of Mr Justice Chamberlain in R (on the application of ECPAT UK) v Kent County Council [2023] EWHC 2199 (Admin) (the ECPAT UK relief judgment) provides a helpful example of the use of the new power under section 29A of the Senior Courts Act 1981 (SCA 1981) to suspend quashing orders, and the circumstances under which ‘rolling’ judicial review may be appropriate to monitor compliance with a court order. In this article, Alice Irving of Doughty Street Chambers explains the case.

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: The Sentencing Act 2026 (SA 2026), which received Royal Assent on 22 January 2026, makes wide-ranging amendments to the Sentencing Code, including changes to the availability and operation of SSOs and the community requirements that may be imposed as part of those orders. Certain provisions of the Act came into force on 22 March 2026, 11 May 2026 and 1 October 2026. Further provisions relating to unpaid work requirements are due to come into force on 18 January 2027. This content will be updated as the relevant provisions are brought into force. For more information, see Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No 5) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/772. This Practice Note covers the law relating to breach of a suspended sentence order (SSO) under Schedule 16 to the Sentencing Act 2020 (SA 2020). What is a suspended sentence order? The court has a statutory power to suspend a prison sentence (an SSO). This is still a custodial sentence and the court must be satisfied that the custody threshold has been passed and that the length of the term is

This Checklist examines the right to suspend under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 (HGCRA 1996) and the issues that should be taken into consideration before a party decides to suspend the performance of its obligations under a construction contract. • Is there a general common law right to suspend a contract? No, there is no common law right for a party to a contract to suspend performance of contractual obligations in the event of a breach of contract by the other party, unless the breach is sufficiently serious to be regarded as a ‘repudiatory breach’, entitling the innocent party to rescind or cancel the contract (see Practice Notes: Termination of a construction contract—Common law termination and Repudiation of contract) • How does the right to suspend arise in a construction contract? In a construction contract (where HGCRA 1996 applies), if a party does not receive payment of a notified sum, in full, by the final date for payment (and has not received a pay less notice from the paying party), it has a statutory