UK outsourcing agreements: drafting and negotiating BCDR provisions, data integrity, service levels, force majeure, testing, governance and sector-specific requirements

Published by a LexisNexis Commercial expert

Practice notes

It is crucial for any organisation to have suitable safeguards in place so it can keep trading if faced with disruption or catastrophe. This supports continued operations during and after any such event. In most outsourcing deals, the client hands over responsibility for running material elements of its operations to a third-party provider to manage on its behalf. That handover extends to accountability for maintaining continuity and restoring the business. This is the role of the business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) terms within an outsourcing contract, and accordingly the parties embed appropriate BCDR commitments in the agreement.

This Practice Note looks at the following legal and commercial dimensions of BCDR in outsourcing:

What is business continuity and disaster recovery?
Drafting the BCDR provisions
BCDR governance
Financial services
Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA 2004)

For illustrative BCDR clauses, see clause 21 and Schedule 21 of Precedent: Outsourcing agreement—long form and Precedent: Business continuity clause. Stand‑alone templates covering only the supply of business continuity services are also available, see Precedents: Business continuity services agreement—pro‑customer and Business continuity services agreement—pro‑supplier.

What is business continuity and disaster recovery?...

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Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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