Legal News

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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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...

Roughly 70% of notifications used the CCPC’s simplified procedure (63 cases), indicating ongoing extensive reliance on a fast-track route for unproblematic transactions. Overall, in total, average clearance periods were around 40 calendar days; simplified reviews averaged about 16 calendar days, and the longest case, concluded in 2025, required 344 calendar days......

EU financial services developments EMIR 3: ESMA publishes templates and instructions for Active Account Requirement reporting The European Securities and Markets Authority ( ESMA) has issued the reporting templates and instructions for Active Account Requirement ( AAR) reporting under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation ( EMIR 3). These new templates set out in detail how entities within scope of the AAR must provide the necessary information to their competent authorities. The inaugural AAR submission is due on 31 July 2026 and will cover the period from 25 June 2025—when the AAR became applicable—through to 30 June 2026. Thereafter, reporting will follow a semi-annual schedule, with submissions falling on 31 January and 31 July each year, each covering a 12‑month reference period. ESMA notes that the reporting obligation is intended to deliver a harmonised and efficient approach to AAR reporting across the EU, by...

Financial services developments Motor finance complaints: FCA provides information for firms with one or more SMF The FCA has refreshed its webpage giving guidance to firms on motor finance complaints, adding details for organisations with one or more senior management function ( SMF). Each firm must appoint an SMF (or an equivalent where no SMF exists) with end-to-end responsibility for overseeing the delivery forecast and ensuring the scheme is complied with. In some cases, a firm may need to appoint more than one SMF, for example where separate divisions operate different systems and teams. Where firms plan to have more than one SMF supervising the scheme, they must: submit the most senior SMF’s details into Reg Data as required under CONRED 5.9.3R (2) & 6.9.3R (2) email the name and contact details of the additional senior manager responsible for oversight and overall delivery of the...

What is a lis pendens? A lis pendens is a charge entered on land that is in dispute, intended to alert prospective buyers to litigation. Section 121 (2) (a) of the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 2009 ( Ireland) ( LCLRA 2009 ( IRL)) states that a lis pendens may only be filed to note the fact of proceedings about an interest in land; however, in practice, no review of the claim takes place at the point of registration. Consequently, a lis pendens can stay recorded as a burden on title for years without any court assessing the basis or merit of the case. This mechanism can, in effect, restrain sales by receivers or others and is frequently used to obstruct or postpone disposals. Proposed reform The General Scheme of the Civil Reform Bill 2025 ( Ireland) (the General Scheme) appeared on 6 January 2026 and...

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...

Supervisors worldwide have sharpened their focus on AIR, mirroring the market’s expanding AIR capacity and know‑how, together with a clear appetite among insurers to deploy it. The shared, baseline message remains an aligned one—holistic risk management. How this progresses over time will influence not only carriers seeking risk and capital solutions, but also reinsurers, asset managers, investors and SPVs participating in AIR structures. Understanding AIR All insurers will be alert to securing real and effective risk transfer to their reinsurers, as a core consideration. In conventional reinsurance, only liability risk is ceded (i.e. the risk of losses on underwritten liabilities). By contrast, AIR typically passes on two dimensions: liability risk asset risk—namely risks tied to the value of assets supporting the reinsured portfolio and business AIR generally concerns asset‑intensive insurance, predominantly in the life and annuity arena in practice. It is often employed to curb exposure to lines that...

Importers Service Corporation and another v Aliotta and others [2026] EWHC 533 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? The judgment formulated no new legal principles, nor did it depart from established doctrine. In his analysis, the judge collated and synthesised the relevant case law on the interpretation of IA 1986, s 423, identifying, among other points, the following key matters: the 2024 Transfer fell to be treated as a 'transaction' within IA 1986, s 423, even though there were multiple plausible dates, spread across roughly two years, on which the disposals might in fact have occurred; in practical terms, the transaction was a continuing occurrence comprised of a sequence of individual elements when viewed as a whole the Claimants had standing to advance IA 1986, s 423 claims notwithstanding that they were not creditors of the Company; they were properly regarded as...

Findings The findings indicate that, although operational resilience frameworks are steadily advancing across the sector, they sit at differing levels of maturity. The CBI highlights constructive measures firms have implemented, together with areas still needing enhancement, but its observations and recommendations are less detailed than in some prior publications. Acting on these points is particularly important, as the CBI confirmed in its Regulatory and Supervisory Outlook Report 2025 that bolstering operational resilience across the financial sector is a central priority for 2025 and 2026. In 2025, the CBI undertook multiple ICT assessments of less significant credit institutions and investment firms, alongside ICT reviews of significant credit institutions as part of the supervisory review and evaluation process. ICT risk assessments and inspections are anticipated to continue into 2026, with the CBI remaining focused on compliance with the Digital Operational Resilience Regulation ( DORA) in its...

Asset Management & Investment Funds: Irish Practice Developments— January 2026 Some annual compliance deadlines 31 January 2026— Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities ( UCITS) management company and alternative investment fund manager ( AIFM) ownership confirmation— UCITS management companies ( Man Cos) and AIFMs are required to submit their annual ownership confirmation by 31 January 2026, as outlined for UCITS Man Cos and for AIFMs. 20 February 2026— UCITS Key Investor Information Document ( KIID)/ PRIIPs Key Information Document ( KID)— All UCITS offered to ‘retail investors’ in the EEA must provide those investors with a PRIIPs KID before they invest. A UCITS not made available to retail investors in the EEA does not need a PRIIPs KID and may continue to produce a UCITS KID. A UCITS preparing a UCITS KIID must...

Financial services developments FCA study uses credit file information to gain vulnerability insights The Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA) has released a blog explaining how it is harnessing credit file data alongside innovative analytics to follow consumer journeys and identify financial hardship more precisely. Drawing on records from a major credit reference agency ( CRA), the work applies advanced statistical techniques to reveal fresh insights into which borrowers are prone to distress on their credit products, and when this is most likely to occur. The FCA’s objective is to build a market-wide perspective linked to its rules aimed at strengthening safeguards for customers facing repayment difficulties. The methodology monitors people’s movement between stages of financial stability, rising pressure, and acute distress. By detecting recurring patterns in credit trajectories at an early point, the FCA says it can prioritise cohorts of consumers and the firms...

EU financial services developments EBA consults on simplification measures for supervisory reporting and supervisory benchmarking The European Banking Authority ( EBA) has launched a consultation on a package of proposals designed to significantly simplify and streamline EU supervisory reporting across the framework. Stakeholders are invited to comment on updated Implementing Technical Standards ( ITS) for supervisory reporting and for supervisory benchmarking reporting until 10 July 2026, while submissions regarding IFRS 18-related amendments in FINREP are sought by 10 May 2026 as part of this process......

Hosking v Revenue and Customs Commissioners [2026] UKFTT 406 ( TC) What are the practical implications of the case? This ruling offers guidance on the principles to apply when deciding whether a sequence of transfers forms part of a taxpayer’s “normal expenditure” for IHTA 1984, s 21. Where the taxpayer cannot evidence a particular commitment or resolution under which the transfers were made, the burden is on the taxpayer to show that, when considered alongside their other spending over a period, the transfers exhibited regularity, predictability and recurrence in relation to: the recipient/eligibility for benefit; the amount; and the number or frequency. The decision makes clear that it is not sufficient for a series of transfers simply to possess a recognisable common character or qualification for benefit to amount to normal expenditure. They must also be of an identifiable, fixed sum, or there must be a formula or...

CATS North Sea Ltd ( CNSL) should not bear the uplift because it was not a deemed participant in the field where it continued a related company’s transport operations, and statutes bar transferring the incumbent’s oil business for tax purposes, the UT ruled. It also decided that the company’s participation status dictated the legal characterisation of the activities, even if, in practice, they were largely identical. The dispute concerned the interplay between several corporation tax provisions for oil businesses and a balancing charge, being an amount that HM Revenue and Customs ( HMRC) adds to taxable profits when an asset is realised for more than its allocated value. HMRC applied its preferred balancing charge after a reorganisation under which CNSL, formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of Amoco Exploration Co LLC part of BP Plc, assumed Amoco’s interest in the Central Area...

Mergers The CMA has launched a consultation on potential remedies to tackle the provisional competition issues identified during its phase 2 inquiry into ABF/ Hovis—see the case page. NOTE— For all live mergers currently before the CMA, see the UK mergers—ongoing cases tracker Subsidy control The Subsidy Advice Unit has issued its final report, offering advice to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on its proposed changes to the Green Heat Network Fund subsidy scheme—see the final report. NOTE— For all decisions referred to the Subsidy Advice Unit under the Subsidy Control Act 2022, see the UK subsidy control—ongoing cases tracker Upcoming dates For dates of upcoming UK competition developments, see further, the UK Competition calendar......

Bilfinger Salamis UK Limited v HMRC [2026] UKUT 143 ( TCC) BUK delivered services to a North Sea oil platform operator ( M) using its own staff. The arrangement was later reworked into an offshore employment model designed to avoid secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions, namely employers’ NICs. The core group of BUK employees was transferred to a Guernsey subsidiary, Bilfinger Guernsey ( BG), and BG then supplied the labour for M’s benefit. BUK nevertheless remained the contracting party with M, and there was no contract in place between M and BG. Separately, BG contracted with BUK to provide labour, scaffold and equipment. The core team of BG employees operated on M’s oil platforms in discharging BUK’s contractual obligations to M (see UT at [6], [7] and [31], the latter referring to FTT at [218]). The issue before both the FTT and the UT was...

Per HMRC guidance, anyone within their first four years of UK residence may claim relief from UK tax on overseas income and gains for the 2025–26 year, as long as they had been non-resident for more than ten consecutive tax years, and must do so by 31 January 2028. This relief can be applied flexibly to income and gains in years commencing with 2025–26. Yet HMRC notes that each year a claim is made, the person will forfeit their allowances, including those for income tax and capital gains tax. A new report from accountancy firm BDO says that uncertainty over tax is a major consideration for wealthy individuals weighing whether to depart the UK, per the report......

Eiger Funding ( PCC) Ltd v Ridge and Partners LLP [2026] EWHC 609 ( TCC) (16 March 2026) What are the practical implications of the case? This ruling is a seminal, defining judgment that reshapes the scope and limits of monitoring surveyor exposure along three closely connected strands. First, the character of the IMS obligation. The most significant takeaway is that a monitoring surveyor must exercise independent professional judgement, not act as a passive conduit. Ridge was held in breach for repeating the developer client’s cost numbers in a report to Eager as “agreed and robust” without verifying them. The baseline is now fixed: objective benchmarking against an industry yardstick, such as BCIS, is compulsory. If a developer’s figures sit in the bottom quartile of market pricing, the surveyor must give a clear warning to the lender about the material risk of cost overrun. An IMS that...

Crest Nicholson Regeneration Ltd and others v Ardmore Construction Ltd (in Administration) and others [2026] EWHC 789 ( TCC) What was the background? The claimants ( Crest), comprising developers and leaseholders, issued an application in the Technology and Construction Court before Constable J for building liability orders ( BLOs) under sections 130–131 of the Building Safety Act 2022 ( BSA 2022) against companies ‘associated’ with Ardmore Construction Ltd ( ACL), the design and build contractor on a residential development. Prior to the hearing, ACL entered administration. Crest asserted that ACL was liable for fire safety defects under section 1 of the Defective Premises Act 1972 ( DPA 1972) and sought to extend that liability to its associated companies. The application advanced two strands of relief. First, an ‘anticipatory’ BLO rendering the associated companies jointly and severally liable for any liability later...

As patent disputes multiply, and court rulings on FRAND licence rates for SEPs diverge, attention is shifting to aggregate royalty depositories to provide prospective patent licensees with greater certainty about future outlay. Such depositories offer manufacturers a transparent estimate of the fees for licensing the range of SEPs underpinning a particular standard, for example 5G connectivity in vehicles. In turn, this can head off costly litigation where an SEP owner and licensee differ over a FRAND valuation for the patents. A depository is unlike a patent pool: it is not exclusively driven by patent holders and more reliably assures that its coverage spans the complete suite of SEPs required for the relevant standard. Though long mooted and not yet implemented, aggregate royalty depositories would see an independent expert panel determine the SEPs necessary for a given standard and settle on an...