The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has announced a significant review aimed at enhancing pension investments, increasing pension pots, and reducing waste in the pensions system. The review was highlighted in the King’s Speech, confirming a new Pensions Bill that could significantly benefit UK pensioners and the broader economy.

The recently released Insolvency Service’s 2023-24 Annual Report and Accounts provides some interesting information on how the Service is doing in tackling Covid loan abuse. The report identifies that 831 directors have been disqualified for abusing Covid loans. 22 criminal prosecutions have been carried out, and efforts have been made towards recovering nearly £3 million for the taxpayer.

The King’s Speech detailed proposals for a number of areas of new legislation that are likely to affect small employers. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) subsequently reported that nine-in-ten employers surveyed by them had said they have concerns that the costs and risks associated with employing people would be increasing.

On Friday 19th July there were significant IT outages affecting businesses across the globe. The outage primarily affected businesses that use security software from a company called CrowdStrike. A recent update to their antivirus software contained an error that caused issues in the systems of many of the world’s leading businesses.

Losing a job can be a very challenging and stressful experience. However, if your employer has become insolvent and cannot pay you money that you are owed this adds even further to your stress. If you are in this situation, the latest Annual Report from the Insolvency Service highlights some important information about the support available that may be available to you through the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS).

The new Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 will come into force on 26 October 2024. This Act will bring in a new positive legal obligation on employers for them to take reasonable steps to protect their workers from sexual harassment. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has powers to take enforcement action where an employer fails to meet its duties under the act.

Last week King Charles delivered the King’s Speech. This is a speech traditionally delivered at the State Opening of Parliament and it sets out the government’s plans and priorities for the coming year. The Speech outlines the legislation that ministers of the new government aim to pass and while it’s delivered by the King, it’s actually drafted by the government of the day.

The Office of National Statistics has released the latest inflation figures for June, and the good news is that the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) has stayed at 2.0%. The largest upward contribution to inflation came from restaurants and hotels, where hotel prices in particular have increased on a year ago. Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in the UK may have been a factor in this.

The London Borough of Hackney (LBoH) has been reprimanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) following a cyber attack made on them in October 2020. The breach, which saw hackers access and encrypt 440,000 files, disrupted services for months and exposed sensitive data. LBoH acknowledged that the attack “posed a meaningful risk of harm” to 230 data subjects.