As the new year begins a raft of new laws will come into force in Wales and across the UK. The changes affect everything from the food we eat to travel and wages as well as the speed at which we drive.
Of course some laws will just apply in Wales and others across the whole of the UK. There are also reforms to the law outside the UK that will affect people in Britain regardless of where they live.
From Schengen border changes to bans on single use vape sales there are many new rules affecting life coming into force in the next 12 months. Below we outline the changes to the law as the new year begins. Join our WhatsApp news community here
Wages
The National Living Wage and minimum hourly wage for apprentices are increasing in April 2025 with the minimum earnings for 18 to 20-year-olds rising by the highest amount on record – £1.40 – to a new high of £10 an hour. There are reportedly plans to eventually create a single rate of minimum wage and national living wage for adults, phasing out the age brackets.
Parental leave and sick pay
New rates of statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay, statutory adoption pay, statutory shared parental pay and statutory parental bereavement pay will come into force in April 2025. They will all go up to £187.18 per week. Statutory sick pay will have a new rate of £118.75 per week from April 2025.
Employer national insurance
From April 2025, employers will face a 1.2% higher rate of NI and a lower threshold for when this tax is applicable, falling from £9,100 per year to £5,000. Small businesses will also get an increase in Employment Allowance which allows them to reduce their NI liability, rising from £5,000 to £10,500.
Additional Learning Needs (ALN)
The implementation of ALN legislation in Wales has been phased in over three years. The old SEN and current ALN systems for children will operate alongside each other until September 2025 when the new system will be fully in force..
The additional learning needs (ALN) system is the new system for supporting children and young people aged 0 to 25 in Wales with ALN – estumated to be one in five children of school age.
The ALN Act creates a single legislative system for supporting children and young people aged between 0 to 25 years who have ALN.
Junk food advertising
Only adverts for healthy food will be allowed before 9pm
(Image: Getty Images)
The UK Government has banned advertisements for junk food on TV before the watershed. The ban, which will come into force in October 2025, will strip TV of adverts for high sugar, high fat and high salt food in a bid to improve childhood obesity rates.
The legislation is being introduced by the UK Government, but applies across the UK. Wales introduced its own legislation to restrict junk food in 2024 which will be rolled out, or in place by 2025.
That legislation will target foods and drinks that contribute most to obesity, including multi-buys and restrictions on where products high in fat, sugar, or salt can be displayed in shops. Whilst the legislation will not apply to all high fat, sugar and salt products, it will target food and drinks that contribute most to obesity.
To make it easier for the food industry to operate across borders, products which fall under the new legislation will aim to align with the same products included within England’s similar legislation, the Welsh Government has said. You can read details of foods included here
Single use vape ban and tobacco and vapes bill
A vote was passed in the Senedd to introduce new regulations which will prohibit the supply of single-use vapes in Wales. The ban is hoped to tackle litter and plastic pollution.
The plans to ban vapes were announced early in 2024 and fall in line with UK and devolved government proposals for England, Scotland and Wales. This will enable the bans to be co-ordinated to improve compliance and help provide consistent enforcement across the UK, the Welsh Government said.
The regulations will come into force on June 1, 2025. No single-use vapes can be sold or given away for free after this date.
The UK government has also introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill aimed at creating the first smoke-free generation – The Bill is UK-wide and has been developed in partnership with the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive.
It aims to create a cohesive legal approach to regulating tobacco and vaping products across all four UK nations. The changes mean that children turning 15 or younger this year can never legally be sold tobacco.
The Bill will also ban the advertising and sponsorship of vapes and nicotine products and allow ministers to regulate the flavours, packaging, and display of vapes so that they do not appeal to children. All vaping and nicotine products will be banned from being sold to under 18s and free distribution of these products will also be banned.
The Bill also provides powers to introduce a new retail licensing scheme in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for tobacco, vapes and nicotine products and strengthens Scotland’s existing retail register. It will also introduce a new £200 fixed penalty notice in England and Wales, which will enable Trading Standards Officers to act ‘on the spot’ to clamp down on offences such as underage sales.
Electric vehicle tax
April 1, 2025 could bring the first tax bills for EV drivers through the Vehicle Excise Duty as their exemption to the tax ends. This decision was put in place by the former Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
EVs registered on or after the tax comes into play will get the lower first-year rate of £10 while those registered before this will face the standard rate of £190 a year. The exemption EVs have for the Expensive Car Supplement is also ending meaning those still liable will have to pay an additional £410 a year for the first five years of ownership if their car is worth more than £40,000.
Leasehold system changes
Reforms to hand leaseholders greater rights, protections and control over their homes will be brought forward in 2025 by the UK government alongside plans to bring “the feudal leasehold system to an end”, Whitehall announced in November 2024.
Measures in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act will be implemented in the new year to allow more leaseholders to buy their freehold or extend their lease without having to wait two years from the point they purchased their property.
It will also allow homeowners to take over the management of their building, and ensure they have more transparency of costs and can challenge service charges.
The UK government also plans further reforms to unregulated ground rents.
Non Doms
British people with permanent homes outside the UK will come under a new tax regime in 2025. The residence-based test is aimed at closing the loophole allowing the wealthy to earn income in lower tax countries by nominating it as their primary domicile and not be liable to pay UK taxes.
Announcing the changes in her autumn budget Chancellor Rachel Reeves declared : “I have always said that if you make Britain your home, you should pay your tax here.”
Railways
(Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)
Labour’s plans to reshape railways across the UK will be debated in Parliament in the coming year. There are plans to re-nationalise some private operators. This includes South Western Railway, the c2c and Greater Anglia.
In Wales the ownership of railways here is split between the Welsh government and the UK government. Under the Transport for Wales Rail the Welsh government-owned not-for-profit company Transport for Wales already operates the Wales and Borders franchise which includes 248 National Rail stations.
The UK Government Department for Transport Manages all rail infrastructure in Wales, except for the Core Valley lines, through Network Rail.
Travel to and from the UK
A new law from outside the UK may affect travellers from the UK. British travellers may need the new ETIAS permit to travel within the Schengen zone in Europe. This will cost around €7 for people aged 18 to 70 and will be mandatory for non-EU and non-Schengen citizens if they don’t need a visa to enter the country.
Back in the UK, tourists need to know the new ETA scheme will be rolled out in full in 2025. It costs £10 and allows multiple journeys to the UK for stays of up to six months at a time.
ETAs are digitally linked to a traveller’s passport and should provide more robust security checks at UK borders. By January 8, all non-Europeans will need an ETA to travel to the UK.
This will then be continually extended to different nationalities, until April 2025 when all visitors to the UK will need either an ETA or an eVisa to travel through the UK. British and Irish citizens will reportedly be exempted from the ETA system.
The Historic Environment (Wales)
This Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023 consolidates a series of Acts and aims to to establish a unified framework for the preservation of scheduled monuments, listed buildings, conservation areas and historic parks in Wales.
Most parts of the act came into force in 2024 with the last parts, relating to preservation of listed buildings in disrepair, coming into force in November 2025.
Some new laws to expect in 2026
New employment laws aimed at boosting employees’ rights were announced in 2024 but most likely to take effect in 2026. The Employment Rights Bill is set to be “the biggest upgrade in employment rights for a generation”, according to the Labour government.
The Bill will strengthen statutory sick pay, cut out the waiting period before sick pay kicks in and also includes plans to ban exploitative zero-hours contracts and fire and rehire practices. Consultation on the reforms is expected to begin in 2025 with the majority of the new laws taking effect “no earlier than 2026”, according to ministers.
The UK government has also launched a sentencing review to introduce tougher punishments for offenders that don’t involve jail time, in an effort to ease prison overcrowding. The review, led by ex-justice secretary David Gauke, will explore the use of technology to create a “prison outside prison”.
Community alternatives and fines as a replacement for prison time will be examined, as will the impact of short custodial sentences, the government has said.
The findings of the sentencing review are due to be presented by spring 2025, with the first new measures expected to be implemented by March 2026 at the earliest.