HLAS

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has decided to keep the Bank of England base rate at 4.25% following its latest review last Thursday. Their decision was not a great surprise. Inflation is currently standing at 3.4% for May, which is a slight drop since April but is still a significant high after reductions in the rate earlier this year. The MPC considers that inflation will now remain at this level for the rest of the year before falling back towards 2% next year. The MPC also noted their concerns over a softening in the labour market and continued global economic [...]

Emma Jones CBE, founder of Enterprise Nation, has been named the next Small Business Commissioner, officially taking on the role from 23 June 2025. She succeeds Liz Barclay and will lead the charge in tackling late payments and promoting better payment practices across the UK. The position of Small Business Commissioner was established to support the UK’s 5.5 million small businesses, especially in their interactions with larger organisations. Late payment continues to be a major challenge for small business owners and the self-employed. According to recent findings from Intuit QuickBooks, SMEs were owed an average of £21,400 in overdue payments [...]

If you're thinking about purchasing a property – particularly for investment purposes – one key decision you'll need to make is whether to hold it in your own name or via a limited company. This choice can significantly impact your tax position, finances, and administrative duties, and there isn’t a universal answer that suits everyone. Here are some key points to consider: Tax on ProfitsA frequent reason investors opt for a limited company structure is the difference in how profits are taxed. When property is held personally, rental income is taxed as personal income. For higher-rate taxpayers, this could mean [...]

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a new strategy focused on ensuring that organisations develop and implement AI and biometric technologies in a lawful and responsible manner. Recent research highlights growing public concern over the potential risks of these technologies when misused. For example, 54% of respondents expressed worry that police use of facial recognition technology could infringe upon their privacy rights. At the strategy launch, Information Commissioner John Edwards stated: “Public trust is not threatened by new technologies themselves, but by reckless applications of these technologies outside of the necessary guardrails.” The ICO’s new approach aims to provide [...]

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published new guidance to help businesses identify and protect against the risks of holding sensitive personal information. The guidance can help you to understand what sensitive personal information is and identify any that your business holds. It also provides some principles that, if applied, can reduce risks from holding that data. Here’s a brief review of the guidance. What is Sensitive Personal Information? NCSC explains that there is no formal definition of what sensitive personal information (SPI) is. They explain that it’s necessary to consider possible risks that are associated with sensitivities in [...]

The UK government has unveiled plans for a new digital marketplace that aims to revolutionise how the public sector purchases technology. Although still in the early stages of development, the proposed digital hub is intended to help public sector organisations harness collective buying power. Artificial Intelligence will also be used to match organisations with suitable suppliers based on their specific needs. According to a recent State of Digital Government report, many public sector bodies currently use similar digital tools but procure them through individual negotiations. The new digital marketplace is expected to allow users to rate and review the technology [...]

Have you ever purchased something on Amazon believing it had glowing 5-star reviews, only to receive a sub-standard product? Or perhaps you noticed that the reviews didn’t even relate to the item you were buying? Thanks to new commitments made by Amazon to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), these kinds of misleading experiences may soon become a thing of the past. Cracking Down on Fake Reviews and Catalogue Manipulation Under the new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA), fake reviews are now explicitly banned. But there’s another issue that’s gaining attention: ‘catalogue abuse’. Catalogue abuse occurs when a [...]

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have released their latest figures on the take-up of Tax-Free Childcare. For the 2024-25 tax year, almost 826,000 families saved up to £2,000 per child. During March 2025, 579,560 UK families used the scheme, a 16% increase on the number using the scheme in March 2024. What is Tax-Free Childcare? The Tax-Free Childcare scheme allows parents to deposit money in a Tax-Free Childcare account, where the government provides a 25% top-up up to a maximum of £2,000 per child (or £4,000 if the child is disabled). For example, if parents deposit £8, the government provides [...]

New figures from the Office for National Statistics indicate that UK businesses are continuing to ease off on recruitment, with job vacancies declining by 63,000 between March and May. While this doesn’t point to a full-blown jobs crisis, it’s a clear indication that the labour market is cooling. The unemployment rate has risen to 4.6% (up from 4.5%), marking the highest level seen in nearly four years. What’s Behind the Shift? Rising employment costs are a major contributor. From April, employers have been required to pay higher National Insurance contributions, and the national minimum wage has also increased. The data [...]

Last week, the Chancellor unveiled her Spending Review setting out how government departments will allocate money over the coming years. While much of the focus was on large-scale public services like the NHS and schools, there are some important signals here for businesses to take note of - both in terms of opportunity and outlook. Zero-based Review A theme of the review was scrutiny. The Chancellor described the exercise as a “zero-based” review - meaning department budgets were built from scratch, rather than from making changes to what was already in place. The aim, according to the government, was to [...]