This week's edition of Public Law weekly highlights includes the Public Law case law quarterly for Q1 2025 and expert analysis of the decision in Merck Serono v Comptroller-General, in which the Court of Appeal considered the law of precedent and the court’s power to deviate from assimilated EU case law. Also in this edition, a reminder of upcoming court fee increases, emergency legislation to prevent new Sentencing Council guidelines from taking effect, further draft legislation revoking legacy public procurement regulations, launch of the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, publication of eight draft codes of practice under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, plus discussion of developments in UK statutory interpretation principles. Case updates include a recent decision to lift the automatic suspension in a public procurement challenge, a successful human rights challenge against a decision by the Director of Legal Aid Casework, plus a number of judicial review and freedom of information cases. The highlights include further updates on Brexit SIs, Post-Brexit transition guidance, constitutional and administrative law, Coronavirus (COVID-19), judicial review, equality and human rights, public procurement, state accountability and liability, subsidy control and State aid, information law and other Public Law news.

Property Disputes analysis: This is the first judgment to be handed down relating to a claim for arrears of rent and service charge of retail premises where the tenant relied upon the closure of retail units imposed upon them during lockdowns as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The claim was for arrears of rent and service charge and was defended on various grounds relating to the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as well as contentions relating to the landlord’s obligation to insure against loss of rent. Each of the defences was rejected by the court which awarded summary judgment for the landlord for the arrears of rent and service charge. Given that many commercial tenants have withheld rent on the strength of the imposed closures during periods of lockdown, the case provides guidance on some of the issues raised by tenants and will come as a welcome development for landlords. Written by Gary Cowen QC, Queen’s counsel at Falcon Chambers who appeared in the case for the landlord.

This month has seen the entry into force of lower notification thresholds in the UK for additional markets impacting national security, legislation passed in Aruba to introduce a new merger control regime and the publication of revised guidelines in France, which include an extension of the scope of the simplified procedure. UK—revised notification thresholds for additional national security sectors enter into force The lower notification thresholds in the UK for certain additional sectors impacting national security have entered into force. The lower thresholds cover transactions in sectors involving the developing, producing development, production or research into: • artificial intelligence, • cryptographic authentication, and • advanced materials. For these sectors: • the 25% share of supply threshold has been amended so that it can be met solely by the activities of the target, and • the target’s turnover threshold has been reduced to £1m (from £70m). This change follows a similar change in 2018 for other sectors impacting national security, namely (i) military or dual-use goods which are subject to export control, or (ii) quantum technology,

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the results of its final Financial Resilience Survey issued in October 2023. Over the last three years, the FCA has collected financial resilience data from approximately 23,000 regulated firms. This has helped develop the FCA’s understanding of financial resilience, which is measured by assessing whether a firm holds enough resources to meet their ongoing obligations.  This includes insight into the impact of recent crises, ranging from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to cost-of-living pressures. The FCA says that using the data from the survey has helped it respond to risks faster and that it has identified and addressed concerns in hundreds of firms.

The UK government has launched its second five-year national action plan on antimicrobial resistance to protect against the risk of drug-resistant infections by 2040. The action plan will ensure the UK is decreasing its use of antimicrobials such as antibiotics, antifungals and antivirals in humans and animals and enhance the surveillance of drug-resistant infections before they emerge and incentivise industry to develop the next generation of treatments. The plan builds on the progress made in the previous five-year national action plan and lessons learned from coronavirus (COVID-19) and lays ambitious goals to drive down inappropriate use of antibiotics and promote further development of new drugs and vaccines.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett of Maldon, has released a message on the return of in-person court hearings after the lockdown measures imposed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated the use of online video platforms for remote hearings. Lord Burnett stated that there will be a continuing role for those involved in the courts’ operation, including the enforcement of and adherence to social distancing guidelines, hygiene practices and the use of face coverings. It is expected that remote hearings will still be used to manage footfall, but Lord Burnett described the return to in-person hearings as ‘desirable’.

This week's edition of Local Government weekly highlights includes: case analysis of Capital Housing v Ealing LBC on landlord overpayment and recovery of housing benefit; Mitterhuber v Hernandez, in which the Upper Tribunal set aside the making of a rent repayment order concerning an HMO; and Bunyan (VO) v Fridays Ltd, in which the court considered whether a free-range egg producer could take advantage of the agricultural exemption from business rates. Case reports include Adriatic Land 5 Ltd v Long Leaseholders at Hippersley Point Court, in which the court considered whether BSA 2022 prevented the appellant from recovering service charges concerning liability for safety defects under qualifying leases. It also includes coverage of updated social housing guidance in relation to lifting local connection tests for vulnerable groups, updated guidance on procurement oversight, paused Grenfell supplier debarment investigations on CPS advice, guidance on the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill and updated RSHE guidance following consultation. It includes further coverage of Social housing, Public procurement, Governance, Coronavirus (COVID-19), Education, Children’s social care, Social care and Healthcare.

This week’s edition of Employment weekly highlights includes: (1) Code of Practice (Requests for Flexible Working) Order 2024 bringing into effect the revised Acas Code of Practice, (2) final versions of the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) (Amendment) Regulations 2024, and the Social Security (Contributions) (Amendment No 3) Regulations 2024 following the HMRC technical consultation on proposed amendments to employer obligations to report the advance and regular payment of salary to HMRC separately, (3) National Insurance Contributions (Reduction in Rates) Act 2024, (4) the financial settlement obtained by an Uber Eats worker following allegations that facial recognition checks were racially discriminatory, (5) an EAT decision addressing whether unconnected acts of discrimination linked by their factual setting should be treated as ‘conduct extending over a period’ to bring them all within the ordinary time limit for discrimination claims, (6) a report from the government Equality Hub’s Inclusion at Work Panel on improving workplace diversity and inclusion, (7) the updated March 2024 version of the Women in Finance Charter, (8) Strikes (Minimum Service Levels: Fire and Rescue Services) (England) Regulations 2024, (9) an EAT decision confirming that a dismissal was fair despite no written warning or appeal, (10) the new Vento bands for claims presented on or after 6 April 2024, (11) an EAT decision upholding strike out of a remedy claim after a successful liability judgment, (12) the latest ICIBI inspection report on the immigration system as it relates to the social care sector, (13) Social Security (2023 Benefits Up-rating) Order (Northern Ireland) 2024, (14) Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order (Northern Ireland) 2024, (15) Coronavirus Act 2020 (Extension of Provisions Relating to Live Links for Courts and Tribunals) Order (Northern Ireland) 2024, (16) analysis of the key changes to the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, (17) dates for your diary, (18) updates to our case, consultation and legislation trackers and to our horizon scanner, and (19) a new Q&A.

The Insolvency Service has published the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (CIGA 2020) interim report which summarises the reasons for the introduction of CIGA 2020, and considers the results of 'Stage One' which considered the data arising from a series of semi-structured interviews of various stakeholders. The Insolvency Service noted that 'Stage Two' will continue with some further interviews and involve an online survey of the insolvency practitioner profession. CIGA 2020 was introduced during the 2020 'lockdown' of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and contained two new and permanent, business rescue procedures forming the biggest change to corporate insolvency framework in nearly twenty years.

The Insolvency Service reports a 12-year directorship disqualification order against Joseph Harrison, former director of South East Commercials Ltd, for obtaining multiple coronavirus bounce back loans (BBL) in breach of scheme rules. Harrison has been ordered to repay £38,295 and the disqualification, effective from 6 May 2025, was made under sections 6 and 15A of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. The investigation found Harrison had obtained two £45,000 loans when the scheme permitted only one per company. South East Commercials Ltd was dissolved in January 2025.

ARCHIVED: This content was published in 2020 and is not maintained. The Market Standards trend report provides in-depth analysis of the 12 firm offers and ten possible offers made for Main Market and AIM companies subject to the Takeover Code in H1 2020. It includes insight into public M&A trends and what we might expect to see in H2 2020 and beyond. What does the Market Standards trend report cover? Topics covered include: • deal value and volume • private equity deal activity • UK and foreign bidder activity • industry focus • deal structures • post-offer statements of intention • shareholder activism • coronavirus (COVID-19) issues and impact • legal and regulatory developments What are the highlights from the report? The economic uncertainty

Following on from the package of temporary measures concerning certain consumer credit products that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) put in place on 9 April 2020, on 24 April 2020 the (FCA) confirmed a further package of targeted temporary measures to help people with some of additional consumer credit and consumer hire products. What temporary measures have been introduced that are common to motor finance and to rent-to-own, buy-now pay-later and pawnbroking agreements? The measures put in place are similar to those that where put in place for credit cards/retail revolving credit and personal loans on 9 April and include: • firms must put in place three month payment deferrals (on request) if a customer has coronavirus (COVID-19) related payment issues (but firms can offer longer periods) and