Powered by Lexis+®
Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
CASE STUDY

“The forms and precedents section is essential so that I can quickly and easily look up provisions to include in templates or bespoke project contracts.”

RWE

Access all documents on Business Review

Business Review meaning

What does Business Review mean?
In practice, Business Review refers to the narrative analysis in a company’s annual report explaining the development, performance and position of the business, its principal risks and uncertainties, and (where appropriate) key performance indicators. In the UK this was a defined statutory requirement within the directors’ report under Companies Act 2006, s 417 for financial years beginning on or after 1 October 2007. It applied to all companies except those qualifying for the small companies’ reporting exemption, and for quoted companies mandated additional non‑financial disclosures. For financial years ending on or after 30 September 2013 it was replaced by the strategic report regime (ss 414A–414C), although the term is still used as shorthand for narrative reporting content. The position in Scotland and Northern Ireland mirrors England and Wales because the Companies Act 2006 applies UK‑wide. In Ireland, “business review” is a descriptive term for the “fair review” section of the directors’ report under the Companies Act 2014 (for example, s 327), which covers similar matters; there is no separate statutory strategic report. The term commonly arises in due diligence and when analysing historic accounts, and remains a useful label for the core narrative reporting that informs investors, creditors and regulators.
Speed up all aspects of your legal work with tools that help you to work faster and smarter. Win cases, close deals and grow your business–all whilst saving time and reducing risk.

View the related Checklists about Business Review

CHECKLISTS
Business and Property Courts Disclosure Scheme (CPR PD 57AD): Timetable and Checklist: pre-action preservation, Initial/Extended Disclosure, DRD, CMC steps, including Less Complex Claims (England and Wales)

This timetable sets out the key procedural steps for disclosure under the Disclosure Scheme operating in the Business and Property Courts It outlines the required process, spanning document preservation duties, Initial Disclosure, completion of the Disclosure Review Document (DRD), Extended Disclosure, and the actions to be taken at and following the case management conference (CMC). Document preservation obligations Initial Disclosure Disclosure Review Document (DRD) Extended Disclosure Steps at and after the CMC For these purposes, it is assumed the parties are legally represented. Note: this timetable does not cover disclosure under CPR 31. For additional guidance on CPR 31 disclosure, see: Disclosure-overview. The Disclosure Scheme is mandatory for most claims in the Business and Property Courts under CPR PD 57AD (in force from 1 October 2022). To assess whether the Scheme applies to a particular claim, see: Which disclosure rules apply to my claim-flowchart? and the Practice Notes: Disclosure Scheme-definitions, principles and duties; Disclosure Scheme-when and where it...

Read More Right Arrow
CHECKLISTS
FCA/PRA SM&CR: Senior Managers’ Checklist for Initial Assessment, Ongoing Oversight and Incident Response to Discharge Personal Regulatory Responsibilities and Minimise Enforcement Risk

This Checklist outlines pragmatic measures for senior managers falling under the FCA and PRA’s Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR), supporting them in meeting their individual regulatory duties and, in turn, mitigating the prospect of enforcement action. What do senior managers need to do initially when commencing their role? Upon starting a new position in a financial institution, senior managers ought to complete a recorded, early review of the risk management framework relevant to their business area, within the first two to three months. For the avoidance of doubt, regardless of the scale of the firm’s compliance or risk function, accountability for regulatory compliance—including the design and performance of the risk management framework—also rests with the senior manager accountable for that part of the business. That review should include setting up meetings with those in the business who best understand how the area was run before the senior manager arrived (ideally including the predecessor), as well as with Compliance, Risk Management, Internal Audit and HR. These steps support...

Read More Right Arrow
CHECKLISTS
UK extradition instructions checklist post-EAW under the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Set out below are the key practical competition law considerations when preparing and submitting the Form CO to the European Commission (the Commission): Confirm eligibility for a Short Form CO to reduce disclosures. Build in time; a full Form demands extensive data, including Member State market shares. For turnover, use the Commission’s official ECB exchange rate and support the filing with economic analysis. If information is unavailable, explain why and estimate; if requests seem irrelevant, justify and obtain a waiver with the case team. Check accuracy; inaccuracies render the Form CO ineffective until the Commission is satisfied. Provide precise contact details for customers, competitors and suppliers, and include caveats for any assumptions. Allow time for authorisations and, where required, signature of the declaration by the relevant business person or in-house lawyers. Prepare required copies (one original, three paper, two CD or DVD) and translate supporting documents not in an EU official language. Review supporting documents for any “anti-competitive” language...

Read More Right Arrow

View the related Flowcharts about Business Review

FLOWCHARTS
Internal procurement process: worked example flowchart with documentation, evaluation, audit trail, supplier due diligence, approval limits, precedents, quotation types and value thresholds

Under the UK merger control rules the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) may assess or review mergers already completed as well as those still anticipated, provided a ‘relevant merger situation’ arises. See Practice Note: A ‘relevant merger situation’ under UK merger rules. Several distinct conditions must be fulfilled for such a ‘relevant merger situation’ to exist, and these requirements are set out in the flowchart provided below here...

Read More Right Arrow
FLOWCHARTS
Building and operating websites: IP and brand, regulatory, contractual and dispute issues—lawyers’ flowchart

Stage 1—preparing to bring a claim and pre-action matters Guidance on infringement, defences, ownership, injunctions, running disputes, and the Business and Property Courts Disclosure Scheme; cease and desist precedent; timetable checklist; key forms; IP insurance. Stage 2—letter of claim alleging copyright infringement Guidance on infringement, drafting letters of claim, unjustified threats and remedies, with precedents for standard and peer‑to‑peer infringement letters. Stage 3—commencing proceedings Notes on infringement, secondary infringement, permitted acts, remedies, criminal offences, the Business and Property Courts and the Disclosure Scheme; pleadings/initial disclosure precedents; Disclosure/IPEC flow tools; CPR claim/defence/settlement/default forms. Stage 4—case management Guidance on running disputes, costs management and the Disclosure Scheme; checklist; Chancery, Patents Court and IPEC Guides; Mitchell v NGN; core case‑management and disclosure forms. Stage 5—disclosure and evidence Notes on e‑disclosure, witness statements and the Disclosure Scheme; PD 57AC for Business and Property Courts trial statements (not...

Read More Right Arrow
FLOWCHARTS
Business Continuity Planning Flowchart: Guide to BCP Precedents and Key Stages (Contacts, Impact Analysis, Risk Evaluation, Cascade, Training, Testing, Review)

Business continuity plan (BCP) flowchart Use this Business continuity plan (BCP) flowchart to guide your way through our BCP Precedents. It is attached to Precedent: Business continuity plan—BCP. The schematic beneath outlines the principal steps for creating a business continuity plan...

Read More Right Arrow

View the related News about Business Review

NEWS
UK and EU environmental law weekly: consultations, policy and case updates across climate, hydrogen, buildings, enforcement, nuclear, ESG, chemicals (PFAS), biodiversity, waste and water—9 October 2025

In this issue: Air emissions and climate change Contamination and pollution Energy efficiency and buildings Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental information Environmental taxes, reliefs and incentives ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Waste Water, flooding and drainage Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Air emissions and climate change Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGR)-UK government publishes Business Model documentation On 27 August 2025, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) released a suite of papers on its proposed Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGR) Business Model and accompanying policy. The Lexis+ Energy team, working with Navraj Singh Ghaleigh, Senior Lecturer in Climate Law at the University of Edinburgh Law School, set out the context for the GGR Business Model; its relationship with the Power BECCS Business Model; the technologies the GGR framework intends to encompass; its legal footing and principal features; and how...

Read More Right Arrow
NEWS
Environmental law weekly: permitting reforms, GGR contracts, CfD CIB consultation, PFAS timeline, ecodesign review, marine strategy critique, 25 Year Environment Plan indicators, landfill tax appeal, waste carrier permitting overhaul

In this issue: Air emissions and climate change Energy efficiency of products Energy for environmental lawyers ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Marine Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Waste Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Air emissions and climate change Defra opens consultation on industrial emissions permitting reforms The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has begun consulting on plans to modernise England’s environmental permitting regime for industrial emissions. The package aims to foster innovation, adopt agile standards, secure proportionate and coherent regulation, boost regulator effectiveness and efficiency, and deliver a transparent system. Suggested measures include a new registration route for low-risk installations, flexible site permits setting overall emissions caps, and faster approvals for time‑limited technology trials. The proposals reflect the Corry Review’s critique of regulatory inefficiency. The Environment Agency intends to roll out changes that could cut permit queues from months to days and lower...

Read More Right Arrow
NEWS
Weekly energy law update: Ofgem decisions, grid and flexibility reforms, hydrogen/LDES support, CHMM guidance, CfD and planning changes, nuclear siting policy, EU State aid/infrastructure actions—13 March 2025

In this issue: Electricity and gas market regulation and licensing Renewable energy Capacity Market, balancing services and energy system flexibility Conventional power, waste to energy, biomass, and CHP projects Nuclear energy Planning issues in energy projects International energy Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Electricity and gas market regulation and licensing Ofgem publishes determinations on code manager selection for REC and BSC Ofgem has issued two determinations, setting out its conclusions under section 187(1) of the Energy Act 2023 to move ahead with appointing code managers for the Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC) and the Retail Energy Code (REC) without running a competition. As a consequence, both the Retail Energy Code Company Ltd and Elexon Ltd will, respectively, be asked to provide a licensing assessment form. Ofgem will subsequently review the submissions and confirm whether it proposes to award each entity a licence. See:...

Read More Right Arrow

View the related Practice Notes about Business Review

PRACTICE NOTES
FCA, PRA and Bank of England regtech strategy: TechSprints, Digital Sandbox, digital regulatory reporting, transforming data collection (Future Banking Data), and the move away from a ‘Robo Handbook’

Scope of this Practice Note This Practice Note addresses matters linked to technology used to help firms comply with their regulatory duties—often referred to as ‘regtech’. It reviews how the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England (BoE) (including the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)) engage with regtech, highlights industry activity, and records both the proposal and subsequent withdrawal of an FCA ‘Robo Handbook’. It examines these facets of what has come to be known as ‘regtech’: what is regtech? the FCA’s approach FCA TechSprints digital sandbox other regulator-side developments towards a Robo Handbook industry-side developments other initiatives What is regtech? Regtech is a broad label for the use of technology to help firms discharge regulatory requirements more efficiently and effectively than legacy systems allow—and, at times, for the use of technology by regulators to support their own supervisory responsibilities. The expression is used either in contrast to, or as a subset of, fintech....

Read More Right Arrow
PRACTICE NOTES
Global merger control: threshold updates, procedural reforms and enforcement highlights—March 2026

Over the course of the past month, annual adjustments have been made to merger control thresholds in Canada, Italy and the Philippines, while Montenegro has revamped its regime, introducing swifter timetables and more adaptable filing provisions. Canada—thresholds remain the same in 2026 On 2 March 2026, the Canadian Competition Bureau (CCB) confirmed, after its yearly review, that Canadian merger notification thresholds will stay exactly as they are for 2026. The thresholds remain (in brief): size of transaction test: the target must be, or control, an operating business in Canada with more than CDN$93m (approximately €58.9m/US$66.6m) in Canadian assets (book value) or gross revenue produced by those assets from sales in, from or into Canada (ie domestic plus export sales), and size of parties test: all parties and their affiliates (in aggregate) must together hold over CDN$400m (approximately €253.4m/US$286.3m) in Canadian assets or gross revenues derived from sales in, from or into Canada (ie domestic sales, exports and imports) (this threshold is unchanged and...

Read More Right Arrow
PRACTICE NOTES
UK CMA merger investigation: Clariant’s proposed acquisition of Kilfrost’s European aircraft and rail de-icing fluid business abandoned following provisional SLC findings (2015–2016)

CASE HUB ARCHIVED –this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the abandonment of the transaction on 13 June 2016; it is no longer maintained. See further, timeline and commentary. Case facts Outline UK merger review of Clariant’s intended purchase of the Kilfrost Group’s European aircraft de-icing fluid and rail de-icing fluid business. The deal presented a horizontal overlap in the supply of aircraft de-/anti-icing fluids. Latest developments On 13 June 2016, the CMA stated the investigation was cancelled after the parties chose to abandon the deal. On 10 June 2016, the parties had announced their decision to withdraw following the CMA’s provisional findings and the expectation that the transaction would have been prohibited. Parties Clariant AG: a Swiss-based speciality chemicals company, headquartered near Basle, operating in 150 countries worldwide. Kilfrost plc: a UK-based firm in Newcastle specialising in heating and cooling products. The target business is Kilfrost’s European aircraft de-icing fluid and rail de-icing fluid operations. Kilfrost’s...

Read More Right Arrow

View the related Precedents about Business Review

PRECEDENTS
Product Safety Incident, Recall and Corrective Action Plan Template aligned with PAS 7100:2022 and GPSR 2005

1 Management commitment Person accountable for the Product Safety Incident Plan (PSIP) [ Insert name and contact details of senior person in the organisation responsible for leading, developing and periodically reviewing the policy, and reporting on its operation to the Board ] Plan Review Date [ Insert date of next plan review ] 1.1 [ Insert organisation name ] aims to ensure every product it [ produces AND/OR distributes ] is safe, of high quality and meets all applicable legislation and standards. [ Insert organisation name ] evaluates those products and acts to remove, or, where that is not achievable, to reduce, any identified safety risks. 1.2 [ Insert organisation name ] achieves this through quality assurance, ongoing product monitoring [ , review of customer complaints and product returns, ] and risk assessment, in accordance with the relevant section of the PSIP. 1.3 The PSIP has been shaped with contributions from across the business, including [ eg design, production, quality assurance, customer services,...

Read More Right Arrow
PRECEDENTS
Records Management Policy: Classification, Retention, Storage, Destruction, Short-Term Records and Litigation Hold Procedures

1 Introduction 1.1 Keeping corporate records in an orderly and dependable manner is vital to meet our statutory and regulatory duties, for example concerning data protection, taxation and employment. Doing so also lowers costs and mitigates the risks of holding superfluous information. 1.2 This records management policy guides staff in the correct handling of [ insert organisation name ]’s records. It explains: 1.2.1 the meaning of records; 1.2.2 the methods for classifying and storing records; 1.2.3 the retention periods for different categories of record; 1.2.4 the approach to disposing of records. 2 Responsibility and application 2.1 [ Insert name, department or role holder ] has overall responsibility for this policy. 2.2 This policy covers everyone working for us, including employees, temporary and agency workers, other contractors, interns and volunteers. All staff must read and follow it. 2.3 This policy is not a term of any employment contract and [ insert organisation name ] may add to...

Read More Right Arrow
PRECEDENTS
Risk Management Policy and Procedures: Roles, Identification, Reporting, Scoring (Matrix), Risk Register, Strategic/Operational/Regulatory Compliance Controls, Higher-Risk Customers, Business Continuity, Training, Monitoring and Review

1 Introduction Risk management sits at the heart of how we work, and [ insert organisation’s name ] is dedicated to embedding effective risk control across the business—every colleague has a part to play in making this happen. This policy explains: what risk is; our approach to managing risk; who holds responsibility for risk; our methods for spotting, reporting and assessing risk; our risk management policies and procedures; details of risk training; how we will monitor and refresh this. It also includes our: Risk scorecard (matrix)—see Appendix 1; and Internal risk report form—see Appendix 2. 2 What is risk? Risk is the chance of loss or another harmful or unwelcome result. It may involve financial loss, but it can also be less measurable, for example harm to reputation. We group identified...

Read More Right Arrow

View the related Q&As about Business Review

Q&As
EU Subcontractor Staff in UK Construction: Visa Options and Risks

For the purposes of this Q&A, we have not taken into account the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), as it is not directly enforceable; it is for the UK to give effect to its terms (insofar as not already addressed by the European Union (Future Relationship) Act 2020). For further detail, see News Analysis: Implementing the TCA—business immigration implications. As the EU citizen employees fall outside the EU Settlement Scheme and are not eligible for a frontier worker permit, the main immigration options to review are: Intra-Company Skilled Worker Visitor T5 International Agreement Worker Each category is discussed in more detail below. Intra-Company routes The Intra-Company routes allow organisations with connected overseas entities to transfer certain staff to their UK offices. From 1 January 2021, these routes cover EEA and Swiss citizens as well as non-EEA citizens. Both routes require a minimum period of prior employment with the overseas linked entity. As the EEA citizens are engaged...

Read More Right Arrow
Q&As
Unilateral termination rights in B2B contracts: permissible?

Termination rights within a business contract When assessing termination rights in a business contract, it is essential to identify the various grounds for bringing the contract to an end. For instance, distinguish between ending for breach and termination without cause. You should also review how the termination clause interacts with other remedies and terms within the contract. Contractual provision for termination The Practice Note: Termination and expiry of contracts outlines the law, guidance and practice on ending an agreement, including the legal and practical implications of the route selected to conclude the agreement, whether the termination arises under an express termination provision, by rescission of the agreement, or due to a breach of contract. That Practice Note indicates it is commonplace for parties to negotiate terms that specify when an agreement may end, such as allowing termination on notice by either party. There is no general bar on a business contract conferring termination rights on only one party. It also reiterates that it is quite usual for...

Read More Right Arrow