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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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: Practice and procedure Public children Financial provision International children Daily and weekly news alerts Updated content New Q& As Useful information Practice and procedure Family Procedure Rules 2010 Practice Direction Update No 4 of 2025 The fourth update to the Family Procedure Rules 2010 ( FPR 2010) Practice Directions in 2025 has been published, introducing changes to two extant PDs: FPR 2010, PD 41G ( Proceeding by electronic means: certain proceedings for a matrimonial order or civil partnership order ( New law)) and FPR 2010, PD 2C ( Justices’ legal adviser). The revisions enable service-related applications to be submitted through the existing online portal and authorise legal advisers to consider requests for bailiff service of applications for matrimonial and civil partnership orders, enhancing efficiency. These updates concern the digitisation of interim...
Background The Late Payment of Commercial Debts ( Interest) Act 1998 ( LPCD( I) A 1998) is the principal piece of legislation dealing with late payment. Under LPCD( I) A 1998, creditors have a statutory entitlement to interest at 8% above the Bank of England Bank Rate, a fixed charge, and reasonable recovery costs where payment is overdue. Its application is restricted to business-to-business contracts for goods or services, and parties often query whether particular agreements or sums come within its scope. It is possible to contract out of LPCD( I) A 1998, but only where the contract supplies an alternative, substantial contractual remedy for late payments. There is cross-party political agreement that existing measures protecting SMEs from late payments are lacking and impede SME growth: the Starmer Government aims to reinforce protections by taking eight key legislative steps to deliver ‘the toughest laws on late...
HQA (by her husband and litigation friend, HQK) v Newcastle-upon- Tyne Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2025] EWHC 2121 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? This decision serves as a useful reminder that issues of informed consent attract less dependence on expert evidence than many other aspects of clinical negligence. The assessment is specific to the individual patient, and a surgeon should not decide the patient’s appetite for risk— Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board [2015] UKSC 11 applied. The court was especially critical of the Trust’s omission in failing to arrange an out-patient appointment for the claimant well ahead of the intended operation, so the risks and benefits of the proposed elective procedure could be explored and then considered more fully at leisure......
British Camelids Ltd (personal representative of Candia Midworth) v Brooke Hospital for Animals and others [2025] EWHC 2255 ( Ch) What are the practical implications of this case? Advisers should appreciate the subtleties surrounding charitable legacies in Wills, and that a bequest may still operate where many would expect it to fail automatically. Mrs Midworth’s Will provided gifts to ‘such of the following as shall exist at the date of my death and if more than one in equal shares’, naming the claimant and the first to fifth defendants as potential recipients. At first glance, her intention appears to have been to include only those charities in existence when she died; accordingly, says the claimant, the gifts to the first, second, third and fifth beneficiaries would lapse. Yet, once one recognises that a gift to an unincorporated charitable body is treated as a gift for...
See Q& A A and B served each other with a mutual notice to sever their joint tenancy, yet only an uncertified copy survives. Shortly afterwards both executed wills indicating they regarded the joint tenancy as severed. A died soon after. A Form A restriction had not been placed on the register before A’s death. Can A’s executors now apply to enter a Form A restriction? In England and Wales, where property is co-owned, the registered proprietors (or the legal owners of unregistered land) hold the legal estate as joint tenants and hold it on trust for the beneficial owners—often themselves, though not invariably. The beneficial interest may itself be held either as joint tenants or as tenants in common......
O' Connell v The Ministry of Defence [2025] EWHC 2301 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? The claimant did not establish liability under AA 1971, s 2(2)(a) because the judge concluded that while a serious injury was foreseeable, it was not reasonably to be expected. In this dispute the parties accepted that 'reasonably to be expected' equated to the statutory term 'likely' in AA 1971, s 2(2)(a), adopting Lord Scott’s expression in Mirvahedy v Henley [2003] UKHL 16. That approach has since been applied by the Court of Appeal in later authorities, including Turnbull v Warrener [2012] EWCA Civ 412, albeit with minimal debate on the issue. Yet Lord Scott’s remarks in Mirvahedy were in dissent, and an earlier House of Lords decision ( Smith v Ainger [1990] Lexis Citation 1779) still represents good law on the point. In Smith v...
Mergers The CMA has issued a consultation seeking views to accept final undertakings on the remittal linked to its phase 2 investigation into Spreadex/ Sporting Index (remittal)—see the case page for more. Note— For all active mergers before the CMA, see the UK mergers—ongoing cases tracker. Upcoming dates For the schedule of upcoming UK competition developments, see the UK Competition calendar......
The insurer stated that some dishonest claimants are seeking to overstate the effects of injuries excluded from a new fixed damages tariff, in a bid to secure higher pay-outs. Allianz noted this behaviour is among the drivers behind increasing fraud levels. It reported the value of fraud it prevented climbed to £92.6m in the first half of the year—a 34% rise on the £68.9m recorded in the same period in 2024. The split between so-called tariff and non-tariff injuries within a single claim stems from a landmark UK Supreme Court judgment in March 2024. The consequence of that decision still runs through combined injury claims......
A former public policy lead at Whats App has been named one of the three co-chiefs of Ireland’s data protection authority, a decision that on Thursday provoked strong objections from privacy activists. Niamh Sweeney, who previously occupied senior posts at Facebook and Stripe, is expected to begin a five-year stint as the third commissioner at Ireland’s Data Protection Commission ( DPC) on 13 October 2025 in Dublin, which hosts the European headquarters of major technology firms such as Meta Platforms, Tik Tok and Google, among other big tech companies too......
Mergers The Commission approved an acquisition granting Apollo Capital Management, L. P. joint control over DHL Parcel UK Holding Limited and also EVRi Limited together ......
AI chatbots such as Open AI’s Chat GPT and the Google-backed Character. AI are moving into the child safety spotlight Having until now largely slipped through the cracks of Europe’s content‑moderation laws, standalone AI chatbots are edging into the child safety spotlight. The EU’s DSA has trained its gaze on online platform operators such as social media and pornography sites, while the UK’s OSA 2023 is framed around user‑to‑user and search services, plus pornography platforms — leaving chatbots outside platform ecosystems in a regulatory grey area. In the US, the issue has already broken into public view, with parents alleging serious harms to children from chatbot exchanges, spurring: a congressional debate on 16 September 2025; a US Federal Trade Commission investigation the week before; and several lawsuits against providers over the preceding months. That intensity of scrutiny is prompting European questions about how online...
Refer to: Setting aside certain floating charges under section 245 of Insolvency Act 1986—flowchart...
An IFS report issued on 17 September 2025 confirms that lifting the state pension age helps the government relieve pressure on public finances already strained by an ageing population. However, the evidence shows the impact of higher retirement ages has not been shared evenly across groups. The IFS found that women who were not in work in their late 50s were particularly affected by the rise from 60 to 66 that took place between 2010–20. On average, these women see a larger fall in income as a result of the increases, the research reported. They are also more likely to have low incomes and to be in poor health or have a disability. Heidi Karjalainen, Senior, said that women already out of paid work by their late fifties—often in poor health and on low incomes—rarely return to paid employment in response to a higher state...
Statement from the DPC regarding RTÉ's Prime Time Investigation Full statement follows: 18th September 2025 The DPC was first alerted to this issue when Prime Time made contact, and we are extremely concerned about it......
Background In the wake of the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy, Dame Judith Hackitt’s ‘ Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety’ (the Hackitt Report), commissioned by the government in response to this event, highlighted major shortcomings in fire safety arrangements for high-rise dwellings and in the construction materials employed. The Building Safety Act 2022 ( BSA 2022) was subsequently enacted. Numerous elements of BSA 2022 apply in Wales (although in some instances on a different timetable with separate regulations). That said, BSA 2022, Pt 4 ( Occupation and Management – Higher- Risk Buildings) does not apply, and the Welsh Government are pursuing a distinct, devolved framework for the regulation of multi-occupied residential buildings, informed by the Hackitt Report and the recommendations of the Welsh Government’s Building Safety Expert Group. This framework is now articulated in the Building Safety ( Wales) Bill (the Bill), which...
Transactions defrauding creditors under section 423 of the Insolvency Act 1986–flowchart Refer to the flowchart for more information on transactions......
R v Kurtaj [2025] EWCA Crim 1163 What are the practical implications of this case? This decision is essential reading for practitioners representing defendants found unfit to plead. The sole avenue of appeal for an accused in that position is through the representatives appointed by the Crown Court under the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020, SI 2020/759, r 25.10(3), to act in the substantive proceedings. A person who is unfit cannot begin or pursue an appeal in their own name, and they are unable to instruct new legal representatives. If a single judge refuses leave to appeal, the Crown Court–appointed team has authority, where counsel considers it appropriate, to renew the application before the full court; no fresh appointment is required. Should the full court grant leave, it will usually order payment from central funds to meet counsel’s fee on any ground for which leave is...
Clarke v Guardian News and Media Ltd [2025] EWHC 2193 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? The matter was determined chiefly on its facts, with little real dispute about the relevant law on the principal issues. Mr Clarke’s serious harm claim across seven articles failed largely because of defective pleadings. It is well‑established that each impugned statement (here, each of the seven articles) must be specifically pleaded and shown, by inference or factual evidence, to have caused serious harm to the claimant’s reputation. Mr Clarke effectively tried to aggregate the alleged serious harm across the articles; that approach is not permitted and caused his failure on this point. The defence of truth was convincingly established. Mr Clarke was found not to be a reliable witness on numerous matters, and his allegation of a conspiracy among the Guardian’s many witnesses was firmly...
MBP Europe Ltd v HMRC [2025] UKFTT 1069 ( TC) The appellant believed a direct debit mandate was in place to ensure VAT liabilities were settled on time. HMRC had, however, revoked that direct debit. In May 2024, HMRC posted a letter advising that the appellant was being moved to the payments on account regime, and that VAT for the quarterly VAT return to 30 September 2024 had to be paid by 31 August 2024, 30 September 2024 and 31 October 2024. The appellant did not receive this letter, so was unaware that VAT fell due on those dates, expecting instead that the VAT for the period would be collected automatically by direct debit during November 2024. On 18......
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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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