Government and Public Sector news, November 2025

Legal insights, news and events from DWF's Government and Public Sector team delivered monthly to your inbox.

DWF monthly insight:

DWF named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s Legal Panel for Government agreement: DWF is proud to announce that it has been named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s Legal Panel for Government (RM6360), under Lot 1: Core Legal Services. View >

Government launches consultation to modernise design protection in the UK: This article examines the launch of the UK Government’s consultation, which invites feedback on its proposals for a major reform of design rights in the UK. View >

Employers beware. Whether a discriminatory act is done "in the course of employment" is interpreted broadly: In this article, we explore the growing focus on sexual harassment in the workplace, highlighting the importance of the new duty to prevent it, the upcoming legal reforms, and the proactive steps employers must take to ensure compliance and protect their organisations. View >

DWF Data Protection Insights – October 2025: In this article, we provide our round-up of the top data protection and cyber security stories looking back at September 2025, together with practical advice on what we are seeing in practice. View >

DWF advises Rochdale Borough Council and Rochdale Development Agency on Atom Valley Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Centre: In this article, we highlight DWF’s role in advising a landmark project. View >

Other news:

Competition and Markets Authority: The Competition and Markets Authority has published its response to the Department for Business and Trade’s call for evidence on the opt-out collective actions regime. View >

Department for Business and Trade: The Government has announced that it has secured over £250 billion of investment into the IS-8 sectors since July, supporting 45,000 high-quality jobs in communities across the UK. View >

Ministry of Justice: British businesses are set to benefit from a new deal between the Ministry of Justice and global tech leader OpenAI to supercharge UK AI adoption. View >

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology: Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Glasgow City Region backed with £50 million each to support local innovation priorities, plus £30 million life sci investment unlocked. View >

Scottish Minister for Public Finance: Scottish Government releases consultation seeking views on options to amend the goods, services, works and community benefit financial thresholds within the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. View >

Scottish Government: £1.1 million rolled out across the country to tackle under-representation in entrepreneurism. View >

Sector Events 

Look out for details of our upcoming webinars and events: 

Delivering Social Value through Procurement – 13 November 2025

In this webinar, our experts will provide practical advice on how to incentivise bidders to prioritise meaningful social value commitments in bids which can be contractualised and monitored in contracts. 

Registration link >

Whistleblowing and Culture – 25 November 2025

In this webinar, we will consider how employers can foster a positive workplace culture and minimise the risk of incidents occurring in the first place; how to handle a whistleblowing complaint should it occur, including how to conduct a thorough investigation; and post-incident learning and actions. 

Registration link >

The Procurement Act 2023 – End of Year review! – 3 December 2025

This webinar will provide an end of 2025 round up on the implications arising from the 2023 Act for procurement practitioners. 

Registration link >  

In case you missed it:

Limitations on Liability

This webinar explored how limitation and exclusion clauses operate within commercial contracts, particularly those between public sector organisations and businesses, under English and Welsh law. Our experienced speakers discussed the following topics: overview of limitation of liability; real world examples of the Court’s interpretation of how the controls are applied; and limitations of liability in the Model Services Contract.

Issuing procurement proceedings (from the perspective of an economic operator)

This webinar provided practical advice to economic operators bidding in response to a regulation procurement opportunity, focusing on when and how to initiate procurement proceedings to protect their interests. It outlines key deadlines, recommended steps, likely cost and the remedies available.

Conducting a below threshold procurement

This webinar provided an overview of the steps which you will need to take in order to conduct a below threshold procurement. The webinar covered: what is a below-threshold contract, below-threshold procurement processes in practice, the below-threshold contract – in life and supplier remedies for breach of the below-threshold rules.

Successfully delivering a CMA Subsidy Control referral

This session provided a comprehensive review of the Competition and Markets Authority decisions to date, unpacked the legal duty on public authorities to refer certain subsidies, and offered top tips for public authorities making referrals.