Cold Chain Federation

What’s Happening NEW PRIME MINISTER AND POLITCAL SHAKE-UPS July has brought one of the biggest political shake-ups in recent years, with Andy Burnham becoming Prime Minister and a new Cabinet taking office meaning new ministers are now responsible for key areas including energy, food security and the economy. In the space of just a few days he announced a series of measures, making it clear that reducing the cost of living would be the driving focus of this new government.

What’s Happening PRIME MINISTER RESIGNATION Almost two years to the day that Labour won the general election, Kier Starmer this month announced he would be stepping down as Prime Minister of the UK. Whilst these changes can create uncertainty, the priorities and policy areas which matter to the cold chain – food security, resilience, energy security and decarbonisation, are critical issues which will remain critical under any future leadership.

With the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes now live, employers must ensure their policies, procedures and people management. With temperatures climbing this week, heat stress is a growing risk – from reduced concentration and productivity to serious issues like heat exhaustion and heatstroke. That’s why our Innovator Member, Citation, has issued clear, practical guidance for our members.

Access to safe, reliable food and essential pharmaceuticals is often taken for granted across the UK. Yet behind supermarkets, restaurants, foodbanks, hospitals, schools and home deliveries sits a critical system that keeps perishable products moving safely every day: the cold chain. From refrigerated storage and distribution to temperature-controlled transport, the cold chain underpins national food resilience, public health and economic stability.

What’s Happening Government postpones September Fuel Tax Rises. Diesel prices have reduced marginally over the last couple of weeks but remain 40-50p higher than they were in February before the Iran War and subsequent blockading of the Hormuz Strait began. The Government had planned to begin reinstating a 5p reduction in duty, introduced after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, from September but after campaigning from the CCF and others, this has now been postponed until January 2027.

The National Audit Office (NAO) visited Magnavale Easton in Grantham on Wednesday 29 April, as part of its value for money study, Resilience of the UK food supply chain to disruptions, with the visit facilitated by the Cold Chain Federation (CCF) to provide first-hand insight into how temperature-controlled logistics supports food security and national resilience. The NAO’s report will be published in autumn 2026.

What’s Happening Whilst an uneasy truce may be minimising open conflict in the Middle East, it has not succeeded in opening the Strait of Hormuz to allow key oil and liquid gas supplies to fully resume. This, and the continued uncertainty of what happens next, is keeping wholesale oil prices high and also placing the availability of other UK food system commodities like CO2 under threat.

With the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes now live, employers must ensure their policies, procedures and people management practices are fully compliant. These developments are already affecting many organisations, with updates to Statutory Sick Pay, increased enforcement under the new Fair Work Agency, and new day‑one family‑friendly rights prompting reviews of absence management, contracts and internal policies.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is set to reshape how employers manage probation periods. New changes will impact dismissal processes, employee protections and how you manage people overall. As scrutiny increases under the new regulatory landscape – including the introduction of the Fair Work Agency – employers need to make sure probation processes are fair, consistent and legally robust.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces some of the biggest employment law reforms in decades, and the first measures start coming into force from April 2026. For employers, this means new requirements, new risks, and new areas of compliance to plan for now. To help businesses prepare, our Associate Member Citation has created a FREE guide: The Employment Rights Act 2025 – your ultimate guide to the changes.