From 1 May 2025, all B2B (business to business) parcels travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will need to have information submitted onto the Customs Declaration Service.

The government has announced a £20 million package that will help community land trusts, housing cooperatives and other community groups to build over 2,500 new homes in the next 10 years.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, delivered her Spring Statement last week in which she outlined the government’s economic plans, including spending decisions, tax policies and efforts to boost growth while managing public finances.

The new National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates will come into force from 1 April 2025.

As part of the changes being gradually introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act (ECCT), identity verification is set to become a Companies House requirement.

The Bank of England held its regular meeting to discuss interest rates last Thursday.

The Health and Safety Executive are reminding employers about their responsibilities to protect workers from the health risks that come from working with display screen equipment (DSE), including PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have plans to use a callers voice as their password in an effort to speed up phone calls.

Last week, the tax minister responsible for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), James Murray, delivered a speech marking the 20th anniversary of HMRC. Previously, the UK’s tax authority was known as Inland Revenue.

The government’s promised new Fair Payments Code was launched last week to try and tackle late payment problems that can be particularly harmful to small businesses.

The government has unveiled some significant reforms to employment support, underpinned by a £240 million investment. The measures aim to address deep-rooted issues of unemployment, economic inactivity, and barriers to work, as detailed in the newly published Get Britain Working White Paper.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have issued a reminder to be careful about scam attempts that target people filing Self Assessment tax returns. In the last year, nearly 150,000 scam attempts were referred to HMRC, a 16.7% increase on last year. With the 31 January 2025 filing deadline approaching, fraudsters are likely to step up their activities.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has reported that shoppers lost over £11.5 million to online criminals between November 2023 and January 2024.

UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK’s export credit agency, has launched a new initiative aimed at helping British engineering, design, and technical services firms secure international contracts.

The latest inflation figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal that the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) for October 2024 rose to 2.3%, up from 1.7% in September.