Law360, London: A campaign group for apartment owners said on 17 July 2025 that it has sent letters to some of the UK's largest landowners warning them of possible litigation over allegedly secret commissions from insurance premiums.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has announced that the Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicine Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG) Life Sciences Investment Programme opened on 28 August 2024. It is a new joint public-private investment programme worth up to £400m and is the first major public-private collaboration of this scale in the world. It aims to enhance clinical trials, improve medicines manufacturing, and increase patient access to cutting-edge treatments over the next five years. The VPAG Investment Programme will be used to establish 18 new clinical trial hubs to fast-track the development of new medicines to patients, allocating 75% of its investment to expand commercial clinical trials capacity (ie workforce and infrastructure such as the new hubs), 20% of funding for sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing enhancements, and 5% of funding to target modernising Health Technology Assessment (HTA) approaches. The latter includes support for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence HTA Innovation Laboratory and rebuilding the UK PharmaScan database of medicines in the pharmaceutical pipeline.

Law360, London: The government said on 29 October 2025 that it has launched a review of its 2021 reform programme for 'whiplash' personal injury claims, amid industry concerns over delays to compensation and the failure of insurers to pass on savings to policyholders.

Law360: The government has set out rule changes that would prevent foreign states from owning British newspapers and other print media, a move that could block the takeover of The Daily Telegraph newspaper and The Spectator news magazine by RedBird IMI, an Abu Dhabi-backed private equity firm.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) have published the greatly anticipated draft Medical Devices (Amendment) Regulations 2026 on the World Trade Organization (WTO) notification portal. The draft Regulations form part of the UK government's wider programme of medical devices regulatory reform following Brexit and introduce proposed new pre-market requirements for placing medical devices and in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) on the GB market through its significant amendment of the UK Medical Devices Regulations 2002. Its eight key proposals are listed below but include introducing an international reliance pathway for device approvals, risk-proportionate classification of IVDs and stricter standards for safety and performance that are better aligned with international standards; among other requirements. The proposed legislation is expected to be adopted in December 2026 and enter into force in June 2027. The deadline for comments for the WTO is 7 July 2026 while the MHRA has launched a stakeholder impact survey call for evidence on the proposals in parallel until 19 June 2026.

Law360: The UK life insurance sector is likely to see soaring profits because of the ongoing surge in pension de-risking transactions, according to a report by Fitch Ratings agency.

Law360, London: The UK's lifeboat fund compensating investors in failed investment firms has started investigating new types of investor claims against collapsed wealth manager WealthTek LLP.

The UK Listing Review was launched by HM Treasury at the end of 2020 to gather evidence and make recommendations to the government and UK regulators on how to boost the UK as a destination for IPOs and optimise the capital raising process for companies on the UK markets. For full details of the recommendations set out in Lord Hill’s UK Listing Review Report and how the recommendations are being taken forward see Practice Notes: UK Listing Review, Reform of the UK listing regime—fundamentals, UK prospectus regime reform and UK Secondary Capital Raising Review. This Practice Note tracks the progress of developments stemming from the recommendations in the UK Listing Review report, including the reform of the UK listing and prospectus regime, and related developments. 2026 Date Development Further reading 5/08/2026 IPOs: FCA publishes policy statement PS26/16: Changes to information flows for UK equity IPOs and finalised COBS rules (in force from 5/8/26) and feedback on the consultation in CP26/14 PS26/16: Changes to information flows for UK equity IPOs, August 2026FCA Handbook Notice No

FORTHCOMING CHANGE relating to the modernisation of stamp taxes on shares framework: Stamp duty and SDRT will, in 2027, be replaced with a single, self-assessed tax on transfers of securities, the securities transfer tax (STT) (formerly referred to as the securities transfer charge or STC), that will be paid (and reported) through electronic transfer systems such as CREST or, where appropriate, a new online portal. Draft legislation for the STT was published on 13 July 2026, along with explanatory notes, a policy paper and the outcome of the higher rate 1.5% stamp tax consultation. Subject to exemptions, the STT draft legislation includes a main charge of 0.5% for agreements to transfer chargeable securities to another person for consideration in money or money’s worth and, for transfers to a clearance service (CS) or depositary receipt issuer (DRI), a higher-rate charge of 1.5%. The main charge arises when an agreement is made or, in the case of a conditional agreement, when the conditions are satisfied, although, where the agreement is not electronic, the STT charge

Law360: In the wake of the Court of Appeal's decision last year in James Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, which allows courts to mandate alternative dispute resolution (ADR), the push toward mandatory ADR has continued, with the aim of streamlining dispute resolution and reducing costs.

Law360: Britannia, a British marine insurer, confirmed 26 March 2024 that it is working with authorities in Baltimore after a container ship destroyed the city's landmark Francis Scott Key Bridge in a collision that experts say is likely to cost the insurance sector billions of dollars in claims.

Legislative development The reforms introduced by the Enterprise Act 2002 (EnA 2002) replaced the monopoly provisions of the Fair Trading Act 1973 from 20 June 2003. The EnA 2002 introduced new powers in relation to ‘market investigations’. These allowed the (then) Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to conduct investigations into the workings of a market and for it or, in certain cases the Secretary of State, to refer a market to the Competition Commission (CC) for further detailed investigation and a decision on whether any features of the market have an adverse effect on competition. The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERRA) made a significant structural changes to the UK competition regime. From 1 April 2014, a new single Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) took over the competition (and some consumer) law functions of the OFT and all the functions of the CC. The OFT and CC ceased to exist on 31 March 2014. In the UK, investigations into markets can be carried out where there are concerns that markets may not be working well, to find out