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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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For many, the hallmark of the Localism Act 2011 was its far-reaching neighbourhood planning regime, which for the first time shifted statutory plan-making powers to parish councils and, in areas without parishes, to a new statutory body, the neighbourhood forum. The Neighbourhood Development Plan ( NDP) emerged and took its place within the planning system. The political rationale appeared twofold: to spread responsibility, and some of the financial burdens of plan-making, down to lower tiers of government and, alongside that, to involve local people directly in preparing plans. In this spirit of empowerment, neighbourhood planning was intended to be simple to navigate and unencumbered by undue regulation. The ministerial foreword to the original National Planning Policy Framework ( NPPF), issued six months later in March 2012, observed that planning had tended to exclude rather than include people and communities; it suggested...
What are the practical implications of this case? As regards the substantive law, this ruling offers a clear and authoritative account of the principles to apply where an order appears, on its face, to be legally defective. In this instance, the order did not comply with a statutory provision; nevertheless, being an order of the court, it demanded obedience. Parties to, and bodies affected by, such an order can now be advised with confidence, given the certainty derived from Lord Reed’s analysis. The judgment strongly underscores the rule of law and the orderly administration of justice. A legally flawed order is not without legal effect. The court highlights the vital importance of certainty and finality, observing that the contrary stance would create administrative disorder and could expose third parties to legal liabilities. The decision is pertinent to those litigating with or against...
The Care Quality Commission ( CQC) secured a prosecution against Belvedere Private Hospital for failing to display its CQC ratings. Pemberdeen Laser Cosmetic Surgery Clinic Limited, which operates Belvedere Private Hospital, was fined £500 and ordered to pay £4,520 in costs plus a £50 surcharge at Bromley Magistrates’ Court. CQC stated the hospital’s website carried a link to CQC website......
Jalili v Bury Council 20210617 What are the practical implications of this case? Recent years have seen a sharp rise in tenants pursuing housing disrepair claims against social landlords. How these cases are allocated to a track is somewhat atypical. Under CPR 26.6(b), such proceedings go to the small claims track where there is an application for an order obliging the landlord to carry out remedial works and ‘the cost of the repairs or other work to the premises is estimated to be not more than £1,000’ together with ‘the value of any other claim for damages is not more than £1,000’. Consequently, if specific performance is sought, the case moves to the fast track if either the estimated repair cost or the damages claim exceeds £1,000. Failing that, the fast track only applies where the damages claim exceeds £10,000. The majority of...
ABC v The London Borough of Lambeth [2021] EWHC 2057 ( QB) What are the practical implications of this case? The practical effect of this ruling is that a claim form uploaded on CE-file can be treated as filed at the point of its initial upload and payment of the court fee, even if the document later had to be re-lodged owing to ‘procedural’ defects. The ruling is tightly confined. It applies where the claimant has obtained an anonymity order before filing the claim, and the claim form is not lodged with the application or the sealed order. It remains prudent for any party to file before the end of any limitation period. A claim form affected by ‘procedural’ defects may still be regarded as filed earlier. However, the judgment does not offer (and does not purport to offer) any further steer on which kinds of...
R (oao Sheakh) v London Borough of Lambeth [2021] EWHC 1745 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment has both procedural and substantive consequences for TROs and PSED. The claimant initially moved to contest several orders; some challenges were lodged within the six-week window for a statutory review under RTRA 1984, Sch 9, while others fell outside that period. By the time the matter reached Mr Justice Kerr, there were effectively two distinct proceedings. The first, chronologically, was an application seeking permission to bring judicial review, presented as a standard judicial review permission bid. The second was a valid statutory review of other ETOs filed within time. No permission is required when a statutory review is brought under RTRA 1984, Sch 9. Although RTRA 1984, Sch 9 bars challenges to an order save through its own...
PPN outlines guidance for contracting authorities on the National Procurement Policy Statement ( NPPS), LNB News 03/06/2021 65 The Cabinet Office has issued PPN 05/21, drawing attention to core points within the NPPS. As a strand of the government’s programme to ‘transform public procurement’ in the UK, the NPPS defines national procurement priorities and the steps to realise them. PPN 05/21 takes effect for in-scope authorities from 3 June 2021. See: LNB News 03/06/2021 65. What are the main headlines from the new NPPS? The NPPS first appeared in the government’s Green Paper ‘ Transforming Public Procurement’, released at the end of 2020. In it, the government explained that the NPPS is intended to set strategic national priorities that contracting authorities must prioritise, ensuring the leverage of public procurement to advance those aims. Published alongside PPN 05/21 (which offers guidance and...
R (on the application of Good Law Project Ltd) v Minister for the Cabinet Office [2021] EWHC 1569 ( TCC) What are the practical implications of this case? The judgment is notable in confirming that reliance on PCR 2015, SI 2015/102, reg 32(2)(c) was lawful on the facts, yet did not absolve the defendant from running the procurement in a way that evidenced a fair, even-handed selection exercise. The court stressed the need to adduce proof that objective criteria underpinned the choice of contractor. Personal links between the decision-maker and the successful supplier did not, as a matter of principle, mandate recusal or preclude an objective evaluation of the award’s merits. Instead, the perceived bias stemmed from the defendant’s failure, on the evidence, to demonstrate that such an objective appraisal actually occurred. The decision will also be read for the judge’s...
‘ CV- Online Latvia’ SIA v ‘ Melons’ SIA Case C-762/19 What are the practical implications of this case? Across the EU, when a website or online database provides a search tool that automatically draws into its results information sourced from third-party databases, this will typically infringe database right. There can, however, be circumstances where the practice is lawful if it can be shown that using data from those third-party databases does not prejudice the maker’s investment—for instance, where the data is deployed in a wholly unrelated market that the maker neither foresaw nor competes in. Nonetheless, in most situations it will be necessary to obtain permission from the maker of any third-party databases employed to produce an aggregated search result. What was the background? A jobs website ( Melons) offered a search engine that queried several websites hosting job...
R (on the application of Cross) v Cornwall Council and Wilton [2021] EWHC 1323 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision offers practical direction to planners and practitioners on how to approach the giving of reasons for planning outcomes, notably where approvals run against officer advice, and on the considerations when tackling sometimes knotty alternative resolutions. There is no statutory obligation to provide reasons for granting permission. Yet, in defined situations, as the judgement explains, principles of common law and public law fairness oblige the authority to supply reasons. Existing caselaw—such as Dover DC v Campaign to Protect Rural England ( Kent) [2018] 1 WLR 108—indicates those situations include grants made despite strong public opposition, contrary to the case officer’s recommendation, and/or at odds with local plan policies. Here, the judge held that the duty to give reasons arose, rejecting the...
Choiceplace Properties Ltd v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2021] EWHC 1070 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment powerfully underlines the importance of precision in the plans submitted with a planning application, especially where a condition requires the development to be delivered in accordance with the plan. That obligation extends to how the proposal relates to its immediate surroundings. Those seeking planning permission should, therefore, undertake a careful audit of the accuracy of all drawings and plans accompanying the application and satisfy themselves that the stated details are practicable and capable of being complied with. What was the background? Choiceplace Properties secured planning permission for the demolition of two two-storey semi-detached houses and the construction of a three-storey block to provide six self-contained flats, subject to a condition that the development should be carried out in...
R (on the application of Swainsthorpe Parish Council) v Norfolk County Council [2021] EWHC 1014 ( Admin) What are the practical implication of this case? For clarity, it is helpful to identify the parties and their respective roles: Swainsthorpe Parish Council, the Claimant Norfolk County Council ( NCC), the Defendant, Highway Authority South Norfolk District Council ( SNDC), Interested Party, Local Planning Authority ( LPA) The court determined that NCC acted unlawfully by considering economic benefits when replying to the statutory consultation in its capacity as highway authority. Mrs Justice Lang DBE concluded that, under the legislation, the statutory consultation scheme for planning applications required: the LPA ( SNDC) to consult the local highway authority ( NCC) on the relevant categories, and nothing beyond that the NCC, as local highway authority, to provide a substantive reply to the LPA ( SNDC)...
Allen v Ealing London Borough Council [2021] EWHC 948 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment brings long-awaited clarity to a point that has caused uncertainty for some thirty years, because no appellate court had previously ruled squarely upon it. A series of earlier cases— Hewlings v Mc Lean Homes East Anglia Ltd [2001] 2 All ER 281; Hall v Kingston upon Hull City Council; Ireland v Birmingham City Council; Baker v Birmingham City Council [1999] 2 All ER 609; Leeds v Islington London Borough [1998] Lexis Citation 2551—considered comparable questions and made obiter comments, yet the central issue persisted unresolved. The outcome is welcomed by those affected by statutory nuisances, as it confirms Parliament’s intention that the procedure for obtaining abatement should be easy for lay persons to use and understand in practice and in...
The coronavirus pandemic sharpened awareness of personal freedom. For many adults, this was the first occasion they could not act as they wished or make independent choices. Yet a significant share of the population faces this reality every day, irrespective of the pandemic: people subject to a DOLS... A DOLS safeguards those who cannot consent to their care arrangements in a community or institutional setting when those arrangements deprive them of liberty. The most effective protection is achieved through regular assessments to confirm the measures are necessary and in the person’s best interests. Although, during the pandemic, curbs on freedom were considered to be in the general public’s best interests, the crucial distinction for people with DOLS is that they are under continuous supervision and control, are not free to leave their residence, and lack capacity to consent to these...
Newman v Southampton City Council and others [2021] EWCA Civ 437 What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling reinforces that, as the Supreme Court confirmed in PJS v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2016] AC 1081, appeal courts are slow to disturb a trial judge’s evaluation of the balance between the competing rights under Article 8 and Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, provided the judge has conducted the exercise correctly. The dispute centred on how the principle of open justice operates where privacy and freedom of expression are finely balanced. It offers a practical illustration—against particularly delicate facts—of the degree to which written material placed before the court in proceedings should be available to non-parties, and the form in which such access ought to be granted. More broadly, the case exemplifies the ongoing tension in the family courts between...
Government backs Law Commission’s charity law reform proposals, LNB News 22/03/2021 98 What are the Law Commission's proposals, and which have the government accepted? The government has agreed to almost all of the Law Commission’s suggestions. Although many appear, at first glance, to be highly technical (and some certainly are), taken one by one and, more importantly, in combination, they are expected to be of real, practical value to charity trustees and their lawyers. Section 5 of the government’s reply deals with the Commission’s recommendations on buying and selling (including specified leases) and on securing mortgages over charity land. The existing framework sits mainly in Part 7 of the Charities Act 2011 ( CA 2011). As the Commission’s report explains, elements of the present regime have drawn criticism for complexity, impracticality, and for adding needless expense and delay. The most notable...
How to operate ethically Suppliers should review the Data Ethics Framework and adhere to its principles. The Framework is available here Suppliers are accountable for clearly informing people why and when their data is shared, so they can be confident it is used lawfully, fairly and in an equitable way The core principles of the Data Ethics Framework are: respect for persons respect for human rights participation accounting for decision Have a clear value proposition Suppliers must make sure the product is designed to deliver a clear outcome for users or the system To secure a clear value proposition, thoroughly research and define user needs, and involve users across the...
Merritt v Thurrock Council and Midos Management Co Ltd [2021] EW Misc 2 ( CC) What are the practical implications of this case for the foreseeable future in light of the pandemic? The judgment reinforces the effect of the Supreme Court’s ruling in R( N) v Lewisham London Borough Council [2015] AC 1259, confirming that where a local authority grants accommodation under temporary homelessness duties or powers, it may, when the tenancy or licence ends, recover possession without issuing possession proceedings. The same assurance matters to private accommodation providers, who often shoulder the practical step of retaking premises at the conclusion of the let and must be confident that doing so complies with the law. What was the background? In October 2018, the claimant sought homelessness assistance from Thurrock Council. The council accepted the main housing duty owed to them under section 193 of the Housing Act 1996 ( HA...
Introduction On 31 December 2020, the Withdrawal Agreement’s transition phase (discussed here) concluded. From 1 January 2021, relations between the UK and EU are currently regulated partly by the remaining Withdrawal Agreement (as further discussed in this Twitter thread) and partly by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement ( TCA) formally agreed between the EU and the UK themselves. ( There are also two other agreed treaties, on security information and nuclear cooperation, as well). Basic legal issues The EU and UK have agreed to apply the TCA provisionally and temporarily (a common practice in international law). This arrangement runs until 28 February 2021, though the parties may change that date via the Partnership Council (composed of representatives of both contracting parties). This is intended to give the European Parliament sufficient time to examine the treaty in detail before deciding whether to give its consent. By...
Local authority v CD & others ( Rev 1) [2020] EWHC 3298 ( Fam) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment is a stark wake-up call to local authorities to conduct proceedings with fairness, objectivity and neutrality, while upholding transparency through full and frank disclosure. That obligation is even more acute where a child remains in foster care awaiting the final hearing. In this matter, the court criticised the authority’s deliberate yet ill‑conceived decision-making and its failure to provide the court with timely disclosure—conduct which, at best, evidenced a complete absence of judgment or professionalism. The court was unequivocal that this biased stance resulted in the child staying in a harmful placement for at least nine months longer than necessary. Crucial facts were disclosed far too late. The case underlines the necessity of close supervision of social...
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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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