Court fees across the civil and family jurisdictions are set to increase as the government seeks millions more to fund the service. The Ministry of Justice this week opened a consultation on a plan to increase fees by around 8% across the board – including at the Court of Protection. The income threshold for receiving
Building owners could face unlimited fines following new measures being brought in to strengthen fire safety, the Home Office has announced. As part of the government’s work to ensure people are safe in their homes, these limitless fines will be handed out to anyone caught obstructing or impersonating a fire inspector as well as to
Hundreds of coronavirus laws have been brought into force in the last year, amounting to some of the most sweeping powers curtailing freedoms in peacetime history. Rules on why people could leave their house, what they could do, where they could go and who they could see while being bound by orders on wearing face
Councils in England will have more freedom on how they spend the money from homes sold through Right to Buy (the sale of a council house), to help them build the homes needed in their communities, under reforms announced (20 March 2021) by Housing Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP. The package will make it
The Home Office has launched (Thursday 11 March), a modern slavery statement registry online, to provide a platform for organisations to share the positive steps they have taken to tackle and prevent modern slavery. The registry will enhance transparency and accessibility, by bringing modern slavery statements together in one place and will make it easier to
Social housing residents will be helped with improving their living conditions through a new government campaign launched this week. ‘Make Things Right’ will help residents raise complaints if they are unhappy with their landlord and struggling to get problems resolved, with clear advice on how to progress issues to the Housing Ombudsman if necessary. The launch of
New ‘gold standard’ procedures for identifying conveyancing clients remotely have been by HM Land Registry. The Digital Identity Standard will enable commercial companies to certify individuals’ identity to a level of security sufficient for property transactions. Conveyancers adopting such systems will also be exempt from ‘recourse’ claims from HMLR in the event of a fraud.
The population could shrink by 2% after the coronavirus pandemic if “missing” migrant workers do not return to the UK or are not replaced, a watchdog has warned. This poses a “risk to potential output in the longer term”, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) – which analyses the country’s economic forecast – said in
New amendments to the Domestic Abuse Bill providing greater protections for victims are bing announced. The proposals include making non-fatal strangulation a specific criminal offence, punishable by up to five years in prison. The act typically involves an abuser strangling or intentionally affecting their victim’s breathing in an attempt to control or intimidate them. Today’s
The Chancellor is set to announce a fast-track visa for highly skilled migrants in the Budget next week, as the UK tries to attract staff for rapidly growing new companies. Rishi Sunak hopes that the new scheme will allow companies to take applications from the best potential employees around the world, a move the Treasury