Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Award definition

What does Award mean? In arbitration practice, an award is the arbitral tribunal’s written decision that determines the parties’ claims, defences and the relief granted. Legislation governs its effect and form in England & Wales and Northern Ireland (Arbitration Act 1996), Scotland (Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010) and Ireland (Arbitration Act 2010 implementing the UNCITRAL Model Law). Key features commonly include: writing, signatures, the date, identification of the seat, and reasons unless the parties agree otherwise. An award is generally final and binding as to the matters decided, subject only to limited statutory challenges (for example, lack of jurisdiction, serious irregularity, and in England...

UK JSOPs: adoption and granting awards, documentation, EBT funding, share sourcing, private and listed company approvals, MAR/AIM compliance, HMRC trust notifications and ERS annual returns

Published by a LexisNexis Share Incentives expert

Practice notes

Implementing a joint share ownership plan (JSOP) is largely the same as adopting any other share scheme, except that where new shares are created, the share interest is issued at once rather than, as with an option, at a future point. The shares are also held jointly by the employee and a third party, as co-owners in law.

Why establish a JSOP?

Although JSOP awards offer an advantage comparable to a market value share option for recipients, when arranged and operated correctly and consistently, any profit realised under a JSOP award should fall within capital gains tax rather than income tax and National Insurance contributions. For more commercial reasons for JSOPs, see the Practice Note: Introduction to JSOPs—Commercial rationale.

Who is the joint owner?

The employee beneficially holds shares together with a third party (in substance, as ‘tenants in common’). Shares are commonly held jointly by an employee or director and a third party, either an investor in the company or, more frequently, the trustees of an employee benefit trust (EBT) or, potentially, a specially constituted Guernsey or Jersey ‘purpose trust’. In this Practice Note, it is taken that the co-owner will be the trustees of an EBT in practice...

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Stephen Woodhouse

After studying law at Leicester University and a career in the City of London spanning 30 years Stephen joined Pett Franklin as the third partner in the team on 1st December 2013.While practising in the City, Stephen trained at Slaughter and May working in their tax department for seven years after qualifying across a range of tax matters but particularly on employee share schemes. From there he joined Norton Rose to assist with building their employee share scheme practice. He joined Touche Ross (later, Deloitte LLP) in 1994 becoming a partner in 1999 until leaving Deloitte to join us on 1st December 2013.Throughout his career, Stephen has advised on tax with particular emphasis on employee share schemes and related remuneration issues. He has advised on both domestic and international issues and become an acknowledged expert on employee benefit trusts in their many...

William Franklin

William is an experienced share schemes practitioner. He is also a Chartered Accountant who is widely recognised as a leading adviser on the valuation, accounting and financial aspects of all forms of remuneration, incentive and employee share schemes. He is a member of the HMRC Employment-Related Securities & Valuations sub-group, contributes to Tolley's Guidance on Employment Taxes. William has considerable experience of determining and agreeing with HMRC the market value for tax purposes of shares in unquoted companies. As a physics graduate, he is also able to advise on IFRS2 accounting and some of the more arcane aspects of option pricing mathematics. Together with David Pett, he first developed the joint share ownership plan (JSOP). William previously worked for Pinsent Masons and Ernst & Young. He has been an active supporter of junior local cricket and...

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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