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R (Greyhound Board of Great Britain Ltd) v Welsh Ministers [2026] EWHC 670 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reinforces the constitutional divide between the courts and the legislature. It explains that the scheme and framework of the Government of Wales Act 2006 (GWA 2006) embody that separation of powers, and that any judicial attempt to recognise and enforce a common law obligation on Welsh Ministers to consult prior to introducing legislation in the Senedd would trespass upon that boundary. This is not a departure from established principle; case law has already upheld comparable rules for lawmakers in Scotland and at Westminster. However, this is the first express confirmation of the position for Welsh lawmakers, and the first time this dimension of the GWA 2006 has been analysed in such depth. The court examined earlier
The solution arrived through the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), a quasi‑judicial body handling mass claims, created under UN Security Council Resolution 687. By addressing environmental harm—most notably via its ‘F4’ claim class—the UNCC set a seminal benchmark shaping how international law and contemporary arbitral panels allocate financial responsibility for wartime ecological devastation. With present-day wars in areas such as Eastern Europe and the Middle East bringing dam breaches, strikes on chemical facilities, and the burning of farmland, the UNCC’s legacy endures as an essential reference point for states, global investors, and companies engaged in post‑conflict arbitration. The F4 claims: Quantifying the unquantifiable Prior to the 1990s, mechanisms in international law for war reparations overwhelmingly favoured property loss, foregone earnings, and bodily injury. The natural world was commonly treated as a mute, non-compensable victim of armed hostilities...
Understanding the farming business as a business Many farms still use long-standing structures that arose by habit, not strategy. Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common. While once effective, such setups can cause major issues around succession, tax planning and involving the next generation. A corporate team can take a fresh, business-led view of the farm, asking: Who owns the land and other critical assets? Who manages daily operations? Who carries the risk and who enjoys the return? What is the enduring plan for succession? From this review, the team can confirm whether the current setup is fit for purpose or if an alternative — for example an updated partnership agreement, a company, a limited liability partnership, or a blended model — would better meet the family’s aims. Tax efficiency through joined-up advice Tax sits at the centre of most
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In this issue: Air emissions and climate change Energy efficiency and buildings Energy efficiency of products Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental enforcement and prosecutions Environmental permits and consents Environmental taxes, reliefs and incentives ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Marine Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Waste producer responsibility regimes Water, flooding and drainage Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Environment Highlights 2025/2026 Air emissions and climate change Welsh Government updates climate change targets and carbon budgets guidance The Welsh Government has refreshed its guidance on climate targets and carbon budgeting, setting out Wales’s legal framework for reaching net zero by 2050. It confirms interim cut targets of 63% by 2030 and 89% by 2040, and prescribes five‑year carbon budgets with a 0% carbon credit cap, requiring delivery through...
In this issue: Air emissions and climate change Energy efficiency and buildings Energy efficiency of products Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental enforcement and prosecutions Environmental disputes and proceedings Environmental information ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Sources of environmental law ( UK, EU, international) Waste producer responsibility regimes Water, flooding and drainage Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Free webinar access Air emissions and climate change Court clarifies how Finch applies to aviation emissions, dismissing DCO challenge to airport expansion ( Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise v SST) In Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise v Secretary of State for Transport, the court concluded that Finch does not oblige...
On 23 September 2025, Ofgem released the outcomes of its preliminary eligibility review for the inaugural application window of the LDES cap and floor support scheme (the ‘ Cap and Floor Scheme’), representing a major milestone in the UK’s drive to facilitate the deployment of long-duration energy storage projects......
On 3 December 2025, the LMA reported its emerging litigation forum had convened once to hear from solicitors about trends in legal cases concerning perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl. Together, these substances are termed PFAS, and are commonly known as so-called forever chemicals. Multiple sizeable class actions have been filed in the US against PFAS producers, resulting in settlements amounting to several billion dollars. Solicitors expect to see comparable litigation in Britain in the near future, which may have a knock-on impact on......
What is the background leading to the publication of the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan? In October this year, the government released the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan (the Plan). The Plan is required by the Climate Change Act 2008, with sections 13 and 14 setting out obligations to devise and report proposals and policies for achieving carbon budgets. A carbon budget is a legally enforceable five-year limit on emissions, designed to deliver at least a 100% cut in greenhouse gases by 2050 relative to 1990 levels. In March 2023, Friends of the Earth, Client Earth and the Good Law Project launched legal proceedings against the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero concerning approval of its carbon budget delivery plan. The then Conservative administration asserted it had satisfied its ‘statutory duties under the Climate Change Act 2008’. Judge Sheldon...
In this issue: COP30 Key developments Air emissions and climate change Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental assessment Environmental information Environmental permits and consents ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Marine Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Waste Water, flooding and drainage Lex Talk®Environment: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content COP30 COP30’s Global ‘ Collective Effort’— Fragments of progress By the Saturday morning when COP30 in Brazil should have concluded, negotiators secured an accord: ‘ Global Mutirão: Uniting humanity in a global mobilisation against climate change’. Drawn from the Tupi- Guarani language, ‘ Global Mutirão’ echoed a summit presented as one of action and delivery. The resulting text deliberately preserved the multilateral process and offered glimmers of progress, yet avoided any explicit mention of fossil fuels or of...
R (on the application of Oceana UK) v Secretary of State for Energy Security and others [2025] EWHC 2984 ( Admin) What was the background? The dispute stemmed from a judicial review issued by Oceana UK against the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Climate Change, challenging three ‘appropriate assessments’ undertaken at the licensing phase of the 33rd Seaward Oil and Gas Licensing Round. Those assessments were intended to fulfil the Secretary of State’s obligations under regulation 5(1) of the Offshore Petroleum Activities ( Conservation of Habitats) Regulations 2001 (the 2001 Regulations). The 2001 regime gives offshore effect to the Habitats Directive in a manner closely akin to the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 that govern onshore planning decisions. Oceana contended that the licensing-stage assessments did not satisfy the precautionary requirement for ‘complete, precise and definitive’ conclusions, because...
In this issue: COP30 Key developments and materials Air emissions and climate change Contamination and pollution Energy efficiency and buildings Energy efficiency of products Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental enforcement and prosecutions Environmental information Environmental permits and consents ESG and sustainability Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Water, flooding and drainage Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content COP30 COP30’s Global ‘ Collective Effort’— Fragments of progress Environment analysis: By the Saturday morning after the 30th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change ( COP30) in Brazil should have wrapped up, the parties finally struck an accord. It is to be called the ‘ Global Mutirão: Uniting humanity in a global mobilisation against climate change’. ‘ Global Mutirão’, taken from the Tupi- Guarani tongue,...
In this issue: COP30 Key updates and materials Air emissions and climate change Contamination and pollution Energy efficiency and buildings Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental assessment Environmental enforcement and prosecutions Environmental information Environmental permits and consents ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Marine Waste Water, flooding and drainage Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content COP30 COP30 round-up—12 November 2025 ( Health, Jobs, Education, Culture, Justice and human rights, Information integrity, Workers and Global Ethical Stocktake) On 12 November 2025, day three of the 30th Conference of the Parties ( COP30) to the UNFCCC, a suite of major announcements landed. The Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change introduced the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change. The Independent High- Level Expert Group on Climate...
Justice Finola O' Farrell found BHP legally liable on 14 November 2025 for the collapse in 2015 of the Fundão Dam at an iron ore joint venture with Vale SA In a High Court ruling, BHP was held responsible for the 2015 failure of the Fundão Dam at Samarco, its 50% iron ore joint venture with Brazilian company Vale. The court concluded the risk of collapse was foreseeable, and that BHP’s liability stemmed from the extent of its involvement in Samarco, which owned and operated the dam. Justice O’ Farrell found BHP ‘controlled and operated’ Samarco, acted as a ‘directing mind’, and secured substantial commercial benefits. She determined BHP had ‘assumed responsibility’ for risk assessment, mitigation and dam safety. James Peel, a commercial litigation lawyer at Weightmans LLP, observed that the judgment shows English courts are increasingly ready to look beyond formal corporate...
The mining group that owned and ran the Fundão Dam through a joint venture faced proceedings in England over the 2015 torrent of toxic sludge and mud that devastated communities in Brazil. Judge Finola O’ Farrell ruled that BHP bore strict liability for harm to the environment and to third parties arising from the dam’s failure. The structure belonged to Samarco, a joint enterprise between Vale and BHP, and contained mining waste known as tailings. According to the 222-page judgment, BHP ought not to have persisted in raising the dam’s height before the collapse, a measure deemed a direct and immediate cause of the catastrophe. The ruling states the company should have known by 2014 that the dam had structural defects. As Judge O’ Farrell observed, it was inconceivable that a decision would have been taken to continue increasing the height in those...
In this issue: COP30 Air emissions and climate change Energy for environmental lawyers Hazardous substances and chemicals ESG and sustainability Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Waste Waste producer responsibility regimes Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content COP30 Council of EU approves updated NDC ahead of COP30 The Council of the EU has endorsed a refreshed nationally determined contribution ( NDC) on behalf of the EU and its Member States, to be lodged with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC) in advance of COP30 in Belém, Brazil. Spanning to 2035, this revision builds upon the EU’s 2020 filing and its 2023 revision. It restates the current aim of cutting net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 relative to 1990. It further notes the Council’s backing for a 90% net cut by 2040 and...
UK developments FCA speech highlights climate risk and UK’s leadership in sustainable finance The FCA has released remarks from its Chair, Ashley Alder, delivered at the Climate Financial Risk Forum’s Symposium on 23 October 2025. He stressed that climate risk is substantial and financially material, and called for industry-wide collaboration to cement the UK as the world’s sustainable finance centre. Alder set out actions the FCA is progressing to strengthen transparency and confidence: embedding ISSB standards into UK requirements; introducing new climate disclosure rules and measures within the Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regime; bringing ESG ratings providers inside its regulatory perimeter. He also unveiled a joint pilot with the Prudential Regulation Authority ( PRA) and the Green Finance Institute ( GFI) to pinpoint barriers to scaling finance for climate solutions, alongside a technical assistance programme to support...
In this issue: Air emissions and climate change Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental information Environmental permits and consents Environmental taxes, reliefs and incentives ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Nature, biodiversity and habitat protection Waste producer responsibility regimes Water, flooding and drainage Lex Talk®Environment: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Air emissions and climate change DESNZ publishes Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan under Climate Change Act The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero ( DESNZ) has issued the Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, satisfying statutory duties under the Climate Change Act 2008. It sets out how the UK intends to deliver carbon budgets 4–6 for 2023–37, produced after a High Court ruling that required a fresh report following a successful legal challenge to the previous administration. The package comprises the Section 14 Report under the 2008 Act, the government's reply to the Climate Change Committee’s 2025 Progress Report, an...
In this issue: Air emissions and climate change Energy efficiency of products Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental disputes and proceedings Environmental information Environmental permits and consents ESG and sustainability Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Waste Water, flooding and drainage Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Air emissions and climate change DESNZ publishes independent review on greenhouse gas removals The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero ( DESNZ) has released the Independent Review of Greenhouse Gas Removals ( GGRs), led by Dr Alan Whitehead CBE, evaluating how removal technologies could support the UK in meeting its 2050 net-zero ambition. See: LNB News 23/10/2025 6. UK ETS Authority launches consultation on aviation free allocation end and regional connectivity The UK Emissions Trading Scheme ( UK ETS) Authority is currently consulting on the potential...
In this issue: Key developments Air emissions and climate change Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental enforcement and prosecutions 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 Key developments Defra publishes response to OEP report on England environmental improvement plan progress Defra has issued a policy paper replying to the Office for Environmental Protection’s January 2025 progress review, ‘ Progress in improving the natural environment in England 2023 to 2024’. That OEP report evaluated how far the government has advanced towards Environmental Improvement Plan ( EIP) targets set under the Environment Act 2021 ( EA 2021). See: LNB News 22/10/2025 36. Air emissions and climate change GAD initiates Cross- Government Climate Ready Estates...
Supreme Court holds national planning policy cannot override rights conferred by outline planning permission ( C G Fry & Son Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government) C G Fry & Son Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] UKSC 35 Background The appellant, C G Fry & Son Ltd, is a property developer. In December 2015, Somerset West and Taunton Council granted outline planning permission for a major residential scheme at Jurston Farm, near Wellington, within the River Tone catchment. The River Tone ultimately drains into the Somerset Levels, parts of which are designated as a Ramsar site. Although Ramsar sites do not fall under the Habitats Regulations, which give domestic effect to Directive 92/43/ EEC on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora (the EU Habitats Directive), national planning policy...
In this issue: Air emissions and climate change Energy efficiency and buildings Energy efficiency of products Energy for environmental lawyers Environmental enforcement and prosecutions Environmental information Environmental taxes ESG and sustainability Hazardous substances and chemicals Marine Nature, biodiversity and habitat conservation Waste producer responsibility regimes Water, flooding and drainage Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Air emissions and climate change DESNZ publishes 2024 UK ETS performance report The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero ( DESNZ) has released the 2024 performance report for the UK Emissions Trading Scheme ( UK ETS), now in its fourth year of operation. The publication offers a high-level snapshot of UK ETS infrastructure, participant data for installations and aviation, and information on market oversight and compliance. It also outlines how the carbon market...
Flood Re Flood Re, a state-supported reinsurance programme enabling insurers to provide reasonably priced household cover to customers in locations at high flood risk, pressed Whitehall and the wider insurance market to make property flood resilience commonplace across the UK. The scheme said straightforward steps, including fitting flood doors and elevating electrical systems, could significantly cut yearly flood losses by as much as £740m. Water-resistant finishes and detachable kitchens may further bolster protection for homes at risk. Focusing on the most frequently struck properties could still produce £238m in annual savings, the organisation noted in its call. Kelly Ostler- Coyle, director of corporate affairs at Flood Re......
' Frontier' Clean Energy Industries The Plan spotlights a set of ‘frontier’ Clean Energy Industries that will receive focussed government backing: Wind (onshore, offshore and floating offshore) Nuclear fission Fusion energy Carbon Capture Usage & Storage ( CCUS) Greenhouse gas removals Hydrogen Heat pumps Conspicuously absent from the ‘frontier’ line-up are solar, long duration energy storage ( LDES), bioenergy, heat networks, and smart grid technologies. These are characterised as ‘vital’, with an assurance that government will continue to support their deployment, yet they are largely unmentioned for the remainder of the Plan. The Plan’s ten-year programme confirms long-term deployment plans for the frontier technologies. It seeks to drive investment by providing greater certainty to industry. Across the document, two principal levers for delivery are emphasised: delivering targeted catalytic public investment and breaking down barriers to investment. Although not the focus of this blog, the Plan also outlines how government intends to ensure a...
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When evaluating a general damages claim, the practitioner ought initially to refer to the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG)...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews mechanisms used in settling litigation. A Tomlin order consists of a consent order paired with a schedule. It operates to stay proceedings on terms that have been agreed. The provisions contained in the schedule may remain confidential. This Practice Note describes the scope of confidentiality attaching to the schedule and sets out how it differs from a standard consent order. Sample wording for a Tomlin order is included, alongside links to precedents, as well as guidance on court approval. It also addresses varying, setting aside and enforcing a Tomlin order, including the considerations the court will take into account when handling applications for each. Further guidance is provided on interpreting and applying the relevant provisions of the CPR; however, some courts and divisions impose very specific requirements for both drafting and approval, and for approaching the schedule and confidentiality issues. Accordingly, you must consider the particular rules and court guide provisions in the forum where your claim is proceeding when drawing up the Tomlin order...
Date [ date ] Parties [ name of Landlord ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Landlord) [ name of Tenant ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Tenant) [ [ name of Guarantor ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Guarantor) ] [ [ name of Mortgagee ] [ of OR incorporated in England and Wales (company registration number [ number ]) with its registered office at ] [ address ] (Mortgagee) ] Definitions Within this Deed, the terms below shall be interpreted as follows: [ Annual Rent • the annual sum reserved under the Lease; ] [ Insurance Rent • the Tenant’s share of the Landlord’s costs of insuring the Property (as set out in the Lease); ] Lease • the lease of the Property dated [ date ], entered into between (1) [ the Landlord OR [ name ...
I, [ name ], of [ address ], solemnly and sincerely state that: [ Matters to be verified, set out in numbered paragraphs ] I make this solemn statement in good conscience, believing it to be true, and pursuant to the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. DECLARED at [ details ] this [ day ] day of [ month and year ] Before me ................................................................................ [ signature of the person before whom the declaration is made ] A [ commissioner for oaths OR [ solicitor OR [ insert other qualification ] ] authorised to administer oaths ]...
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