The Charity Commission for England and Wales has launched its strategy for 2024-2029 including its core purpose and five strategic priorities of fairness, balance, independence, digital and data, and people. The priorities were informed and guided by challenges such as the cost-of-living crisis and the disruption that resulted from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Financial resilience was said to be a central issue in the upcoming five years. The strategy further anticipates the opportunities, risks and challenges associated with rapidly changing technology and shifting social norms.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has published guidance on the new Housing Possession Mediation Service for landlords and tenants undergoing possession proceedings. The service, which is free to use for all landlords and tenants currently undergoing possession proceedings, was created as part of the government’s work on new court arrangements to support parties during the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It has been designed to help landlords and tenants to resolve cases without the need for a face to face court hearing, and will see parties work alongside a neutral mediator to identify issues and work to resolve them.

ARCHIVED: This precedent has been archived and is not maintained. Definitions (General) Competent Authority • any authority having jurisdiction in relation to the Property, its occupation or use; Restricted Period • any period [exceeding [number] [continuous] weeks] during the Term in which a Pandemic Restriction applies; Pandemic Restriction • any Legislation, or any requirement of, or guidance published by, a Competent Authority which:

Macfarlanes and Burness Paull advised Dobbies Garden Centres, the UK’s largest operator of garden centres, on its restructuring plan (RP) under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006), which was approved by Lord Braid in the Court of Session in Scotland on 9 December 2024. A RP is a procedure pursuant to which a company in financial difficulty can make a compromise or arrangement with its creditors to eliminate, reduce, prevent, or mitigate the effect of its financial difficulties. Such compromises and arrangements can take a variety of forms, including amendments and extensions of debt, debt for equity swaps and amendments to the terms of, and compromise of rent payable under, leases and other property-related liabilities. The RP process was introduced during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 to provide a new restructuring tool in the UK. While there is a great deal of similarity between the regime for RPs and

The legislation surrounding director disqualification applications under section 6 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 (CDDA 1986) can be found under: • CDDA 1986, s 6 • the Insolvent Companies (Disqualification of Unfit Directors) Proceedings Rules 1987, SI 1987/2023 (Disqualification Rules 1987) • these are supplemented by the Practice Direction: Directors Disqualification Proceedings (PDDDP), which was last updated in January 2017 Note also that directors of dissolved companies that have not been through an insolvency process can also be disqualified as a result of amendments to CDDA 1986, s 6 by the Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Act 2021, though such disqualifications fall outside the scope of this Practice Note. The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) also apply to director disqualification proceedings, though to the extent that they are inconsistent with the Disqualification Rules 1987, the Disqualification Rules 1987 will take precedence. The claim is commenced under Part 8 of the CPR. For information on when proceedings under

In recent months, the global demand for construction products has exceeded supply, causing a shortage of materials that has put pressure on the UK construction sector. The materials affected include timber, steel, cement, paints, and electrical components. Several factors have contributed to this imbalance of supply and demand, including the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the effects of Brexit. Under most forms of construction contract (including those in the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) and NEC suites), the Contractor is responsible for providing the goods and materials needed to complete the works. Many Contractors will therefore wish to confirm whether they are entitled to: • additional time to complete, to allow for delays caused by material shortages (eg where materials are unavailable or subject to unusually long lead or delivery times), and/or • recover their delay-related costs In this answer, we have considered the position under the JCT Standard Building Contract (SBC) 2016

AI in business In 2023, the world changed again. Much like coronavirus (COVID-19), the use of generative AI tools (GenAI) spread like a pandemic. Eager to achieve the efficiencies promised, people and organisations embraced these exciting new tools. With the mass adoption of such general-purpose technology, there is a danger people and businesses are being carried along with the wave without fully appreciating how GenAI works and what problems arise as a result. Instead, they rely on the tool to do the ‘thinking’ for them. GenAI tools do not ‘think’ in the traditional sense. The underpinning program of the tool ‘simply’ accesses the vast amount of data which it has been ‘fed’, identifies appropriate patterns within that data to produce a response which is statistically most relevant to the question asked. The main issue with using GenAI tools is not knowing where the data being accessed has come from. The subsidiary issue is: have

UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE) has published a report on migration to the UK after Brexit that analyses changes in policy, outcomes, and public opinion on migration. This reviews how a future government might respond to future challenges, such as the large increase in net migration to the UK post-coronavirus (COVID-19). The report also considers the next government’s choices in relation to integration, asylum, the role of artificial intelligence in understanding public views on immigration, ‘humanitarian migration’ routes for those fleeing from conflict, student migration, economic migration and the fallout from the Windrush scandal.

The Insolvency Service has reported that Ricky Harrison was sentenced to three years and two months in prison and faces a ten-year director disqualification after fraudulently obtaining £200,000 in coronavirus bounce back loans (BBL). Harrison secured maximum-value loans for three dormant companies and overstated turnover for a fourth company when entitled to only £16,000 in total. The director used the funds for personal purposes, including £85,000 for vehicle purchase, contrary to scheme requirements. The prosecution followed the Insolvency Service's investigations into applications made across his four education support companies in 2020.

Transparency International UK has published an analysis titled, 'Behind the Masks: Corruption red flags in COVID-19 public procurement', analysing public procurement and contracts issued during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Transparency International has identified 135 high-risk contracts with three or more corruption red flags, totalling £15.3bn. Transparency International has proposed that those charged with protecting the purse, including the proposed COVID-19 Corruption Commissioner, should investigate these high-risk contracts identified in the report, as well as proposing that the UK government changes how it does procurement and strengthens its institutional safeguards against impropriety.

The Insolvency Service has reported that, Shaun David Dixon, a self-employed electrician, has been subjected to seven years of bankruptcy restrictions after he fraudulently claimed two coronavirus Bounce Back Loans (BBLs) amounting to £23,750 for his company. Dixon also exaggerated his turnover to receive £16,250 more than what he was entitled to. Bankruptcy restrictions now prevent Dixon from acting as a company director without the court's permission and from borrowing more than £500 without disclosing the sanctions—which will be enforced until 16 October 2031.

The Cabinet Office and Public Sector Fraud Authority have reported that government anti-fraud measures prevented £480m in losses between April 2024 and April 2025. The initiative recovered £186m from coronavirus (COVID-19) related fraud and implemented a new artificial intelligence (AI) system to detect policy vulnerabilities. The measures included blocking companies with fraudulent Bounce Back Loans from dissolving, removing 2,600 people from housing waiting lists, and preventing 37,000 fraudulent council tax discount claims. Plans to deploy a new government-developed AI system designed to scan draft policies for fraud risk was also announced, with the intention for it to be used across all departments and internationally.