The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has extended the deadline for firms to comply with new sustainability rules by four months. The City watchdog said it has taken longer than expected for firms to make changes to their fund names when it came to using new sustainability labels. With this in mind, the FCA is offering…

Jonathan Sara, a solicitor at Private Office Legal Services, has been fined £5,165 for failing to adequately advise over 100 clients on high-risk schemes involving the purchase and subletting of leasehold rooms in care homes. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) found that between February 2017 and March 2019, Mr Sara breached multiple principles of the SRA Code of Conduct. Although his conduct was deemed serious, it was not intentional, and he was not found to…

More than 5,000 prisoners, including violent offenders, will be freed early over the next six weeks under plans designed to ease the overcrowding crisis in jails, with the first 1,750 inmates who have served 40% of their sentences to be freed from jails across England and Wales today. Critics, including Baroness Newlove, argue that this scheme is distressing for victims who expect offenders to serve their full sentences. Claire…

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has proposed a significant change to the duties of barristers, suggesting they should be required to “act in a way that advances equality, diversity and inclusion.” This new duty would replace the existing obligation to “not discriminate unlawfully against any person.” The BSB’s consultation, which runs until November, aims to foster a culture change within the profession. Sam Townend KC, Chair of the Bar Council, expressed support for the initiative but cautioned that “radical…

The Ministry of Justice is considering sending prisoners to Estonia after the Baltic country offered to rent out space in its jails, which are half empty due to the state’s low crime rate. Former justice secretary Alex Chalk proposed the idea at last year’s Tory conference, but Labour gave it short shrift. Now, it appears they are considering it, although officials have warned it could be…

The finance sector has welcomed a move by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) to lower the maximum for fraud payouts by banks from £415,000 to £85,000 after finding the lower threshold would still cover more than 99% of authorised push payment fraud cases by volume. Now industry group UK Finance has called for authorities to go further and require other sectors, such as social media companies, to take responsibility for the fraud that originates on…