The government has passed the Data Protection Act 2018, which ushers in major changes in the way companies handle and process personal data, under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) effective 25 May

Substantial tax rises are needed to fund the NHS as demand increases and government spending cuts take hold, according to a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) which suggests households could be paying an additional £2,000 in tax for the next 15 years, equivalent to an additional 10p in the pound

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is to conduct an investigation into the relationship between ‘strategic suppliers’ and government in the wake of the collapse Carillion, over concerns about a lack of transparency and poor risk assessment of the company’s financial problems

The government’s new cryptoassets taskforce has had its first meeting, and is considering what, if any, regulation is required over the use of distributed ledger technology in financial services

FTSE 100 pension schemes are back in surplus for the first time since the 2008 financial crash, but remain at risk due to impending changes in accounting, according to analysis from Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP)

Prospects for a major review of the options for breaking up the Big Four accountancy firms have got closer as MPs have challenged Andrew Tyrie, the former chair of the Treasury committee and incoming head of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to start work on this ‘as soon as possible’

The Parliamentary joint committee investigating the collapse of Carillion has raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest involving EY, after it discovered the firm was hired by the outsourcer to help with its restructuring at the same time as EY was also asked by one of the company's clients, HS2 Ltd, to assess Carillion’s financial standing

Companies are losing an average of 7% of their annual expenditure to fraud, which is now costing the UK £110bn a year, while the global cost has topped £3 trillion, according to research from Crowe Clark Whitehill, together with the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Counter Fraud Studies (CCFS)

There has been an 11% drop in the number of job vacancies in the UK’s restaurant sector over the last six months, according to research by Moore Stephens which suggests companies are cutting staff to save on costs

Mothercare has joined the list of high street retailers looking to set up a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) proposal, which will be supervised by KPMG if the company’s proposals are successful

MPs are calling for an overhaul of the finances at Motability, the body which provides access to vehicles for people with disabilities, after a joint Parliamentary committee report found its reserves of £2.4bn are ‘out of proportion’ to the risks it faces and branded the CEO’s £1.7m salary ‘totally unacceptable’

David Phillips and Neil Amin-Smith, economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) examine the plans for radical overhaul of the council funding system, the impact of the funding pilot on local authoritiy spending and question whether it is creating fairer distribution of funds for local authorities