Legal News

Scope and purpose of the CIArb Guideline The CIArb Guideline is presented as a non-binding soft law instrument and is explicitly intended to apply to international arbitration proceedings, whether conducted ad hoc or administered by institutions. It provides practical direction on the responsible deployment of AI Tools, aiming to safeguard procedural fairness, ensure equality between the parties, and help preserve the integrity of the overall process. Part I— Benefits, risks, and definitions Part I establishes the framework for appreciating how AI might influence arbitral practice and procedure. It first highlights potential advantages (1.1–1.10), among other things, including greater efficiency, reduced costs, improved consistency in legal research, and assistance with procedural and administrative tasks within the process. At the same time, it recognises risks linked to AI use (2.1–2), such as lack of transparency, bias, data security issues, and the prospect of...

G ( A Child: Scope of Fact-finding) [2025] EWCA Civ 1044 What are the practical implications of this case? The decision is notable because the Court of Appeal divided on whether fact-finding is needed to underpin a risk assessment when the potential seriousness of harm might extend to a child suffering fatal injuries, perhaps from a brief loss of self-control. Their Lordships parted company on the central issue of necessity: must the court resolve factual disputes, and would any findings materially alter the child’s care planning. The majority concluded it was not, since a risk assessment can accommodate a broad spectrum of outcomes from impulsive behaviour, up to and including fatal harm, even if that extreme possibility is not accepted and there are no findings to that effect. That may seem striking and somewhat...

Arun District Council— BEW Parcel SC1, Barnham On 21 July 2025, Arun District Council resolved to approve planning consent for a new scheme comprising 1,250 dwellings (with related infrastructure) in Barnham. The proposal put forward 15% affordable housing alongside reduced education contributions, both justified on viability grounds. Under the Council’s Local Plan, major sites are expected to deliver 30% affordable housing. At the time, the authority’s housing land supply stood at 3.4 years. The Officer’s Report concluded that this shortfall rendered the Local Plan out of date for decision‑making, and, in that context, recommended approval. That approval was made conditional on a satisfactory Section 106 agreement, with the Council depending on the inclusion of an upwards‑only review clause. This mechanism secured continuing reassessment of the affordable housing provision over the course of delivery and, where viability improved in future, required the developer to...

Booming investment and energy incentives may lead to investor-state disputes Data centres have long underpinned cloud storage, streaming platforms and the broader digital economy, yet AI is now propelling extraordinary demand for larger and more capable facilities. The US hosts the greatest number of hyperscale data centres—‘hyperscalers’ used by major tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, Meta and Apple—for intensive compute and storage, and US demand is forecast to more than triple between 2024 and 2030, requiring upwards of US$500bn in capital. However, although the US sets the pace, most fresh deal-making for data centres is occurring beyond its borders as operators hunt for cheaper land and reliable, low-cost power. Leading development hotspots include Asia- Pacific nations like India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, alongside rising markets across the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. In Africa, for instance, the Bharti group is building its first...

According to the APPT, at the very least there should be a statutory funding assessment and ultimate decision-making authority for managers of retirement savings schemes, as a minimum requirement. The association set out its view in response to a consultation on the Pension Schemes Bill, a landmark law for the industry, formally during the consultation process. On 1 September 2025 the Bill was sent to the parliamentary Public Bill Committee ( PBC), which examines the small print of particular legislation. A fiercely debated element proposes that employers with comfortably funded defined benefit pensions could more readily ‘extract’ surplus assets that have accumulated beyond the amounts required to meet members’ benefits. The government believes such steps could help to stimulate economic growth......

Lunt v BAC Impalloy Ltd [2025] Lexis Citation 2143 What are the practical implications of this case? Limitation The court’s handling of the limitation defence offers practical and balanced guidance to claimant and defendant practitioners alike on a continuing cause of action extending across 20 years. It considers a date of knowledge arising mid‑way through the exposure period, and carefully weighs the principal considerations bearing on the court’s discretion under section 33 of the Limitation Act 1980 ( LA 1980) to disapply the limitation period. Medical causation The court’s evaluation of competing medical opinions clearly illustrates the features that may prompt acceptance or rejection of an expert’s evidence. Here, the judge closely examined whether the experts’ reasoning withstood scrutiny against any concessions (or the absence of them), the appropriate deference shown to the other expert where warranted, and the extent to which their conclusions were...

The Insolvency Service Situated within the Department for Business and Trade, the Insolvency Service is tasked, among other things, with: overseeing bankruptcies and debt relief orders; managing company liquidations; investigating related financial misconduct and director misconduct; enforcing company and insolvency law across the UK. The transfer of functions from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in 2017 made the Insolvency Service a prosecuting authority in its own right. The Strategy underlines its role as a prosecuting agency, with a core focus on strengthening investigation and enforcement by intensifying enforcement of the Companies Act, and building the capacity and capability to investigate and take action against companies and directors......

Mergers The CMA has opened a phase 1 investigation into the completed acquisition of Assura plc by Primary Health Care Properties plc; for more detail, see the case page. Note— For all live mergers before the CMA, please refer to the UK mergers—ongoing cases tracker. Upcoming dates For dates of forthcoming UK competition developments, please see the UK Competition calendar......

State aid General Court dismisses action relating to Commission’s decision approving compensation to Česká pošta for universal service obligations The General Court delivered its ruling in Case T-784/22, Zásilkovna v Commission, a challenge to the Commission’s decision of 25 July 2022, which concluded that compensation granted to Česká pošta by the Czech Republic for carrying out the universal postal service obligation for the years 2018-2022 was compatible with the internal market ( SA.55208). The General Court rejected the action in full. By its ruling, the Court endorsed the Commission’s approval of the compensation measure. Background Česká pošta, the incumbent postal operator in the Czech Republic, has been designated as the country’s universal postal service provider. Under the universal service obligation ( USO), Česká pošta is required, amongst other duties, to make available specified letter and parcel delivery services on each business day throughout the whole...

The High Court has ordered Carbon Holdings to pay Baker Botts—which is based in the Walkie- Talkie building in London— US$1m ahead of a trial The High Court directed oil and gas project developer Carbon Holdings Ltd, controlled by industrialist Basil El- Baz, to advance US$1m to the US law firm after deciding there was no dispute that Baker Botts had performed the work for Carbon Holdings. The company had argued the fees were not payable because the services were undertaken for its subsidiaries, but Judge David Elvin concluded the amount related to work Baker Botts carried out for the benefit of Carbon Holdings and EHI Ltd, a company that holds shares in Carbon Holdings on El- Baz’s behalf......

What are the practical implications of this case? General procedural provisions that preserve a court’s inherent power to secure substantial justice—such as Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure—do not authorise courts to intrude upon arbitral processes when the arbitration statute states otherwise. The bench clarified that the Indian Arbitration Act operates as a complete, self-contained framework governing arbitral conduct, thereby by implication displacing recourse to broader procedural law. What was the background? Proceedings were commenced to refer disputes arising from a signed family settlement deed to arbitration, during which a non-signatory sought the court’s leave to take part in the arbitration. The controversy did not impinge upon that non-signatory’s rights under the deed, and any eventual award would not have imposed obligations upon him. The High Court therefore declined the non-signatory’s request to join, while sending the disputes to arbitration between the two deed...

LLC Eurochem North- West-2 and another company v Societe Generale S. A. and other companies [2025] EWHC 1938 ( Comm) This is a highly important decision for practitioners dealing with international sanctions, as the court delivers a detailed examination of how EU sanctions interface with domestic sanctions authorities in such circumstances. It also provides an in-depth consideration of the notions of ‘ownership’ and ‘control’ for the purpose of sanctions, including where trust arrangements feature, which is not unusual when there is a link to a designated individual. The ruling is likewise of real assistance to those working with performance bonds and related trade finance instruments in the sanctions context. The background facts The relevant parties The dispute stemmed from six on-demand bonds ( Bonds) issued in 2021 and 2022 by Société Générale ( Soc Gen) and ING Bank ( ING) (the Banks) in favour of Euro Chem North-...

What prompted the update to the Joint SFO- CPS Corporate Prosecution Guidance? The Joint SFO- CPS Corporate Prosecution Guidance has been revised to reflect the shifting corporate crime landscape under the ECCTA 2023. Since the 2021 guidance, two major reforms have redefined corporate liability for economic crime. First, the failure to prevent fraud ( FTPF) offence, taking effect on 1 September 2025, imposes strict liability on large organisations where an associated person commits fraud intending to benefit the organisation or its clients. The revision provides prosecutors with clear direction ahead of the new offence. Both the Serious Fraud Office ( SFO) and the Crown Prosecution Service ( CPS) have indicated they will deploy this provision promptly and with vigour. SFO Director Nick Ephgrave has publicly expressed his wish to secure the first prosecution under the ECCTA 2023, emphasising that companies ‘must get their house in...

Michael Tappin KC, serving as a Deputy High Court Judge, concluded that Bayer AG had not promised to yield its own profits when it agreed to compensate Sandoz AG for any losses linked to the postponed 2024 roll-out of its generic medicine. Tappin J dismissed Sandoz’s demand for Bayer’s profits, finding the claim doomed to fail. The court considered the reach of Bayer’s undertakings during the interim injunction to be unmistakable. As Tappin J explained, Bayer agreed to comply with whatever order the court might issue to make good any loss Sandoz suffered because of the injunctions, and to be jointly and severally responsible for any monetary sum the court awarded for that purpose. Bayer was not undertaking to......

Matiere SAS (a company incorporated under the laws of France) v ABM Precast Solutions Ltd [2025] EWHC 2030 ( TCC) What are the practical implications of this case? This judgment signals scope for a more adaptable approach to consequential relief where a Part 36 offer is bettered at trial, yet the court is not persuaded that the offer represented a genuine effort to settle the proceedings in their entirety. It sets out the appropriate course where a Part 36 proposal authentically seeks to resolve a claim within the proceedings but, in substance, overlooks a substantially higher-value counterclaim pursued in the same action. The court rejects the suggestion that the enhanced cost consequences under Part 36 operate on an all-or-nothing basis, and accepts that it is both permissible and suitable to confer the enhanced consequences on the claim while directing that the...

Virgin Media issue On 1 September 2025, Pensions Minister Torsten Bell put forward a package of amendments to the Pension Schemes Bill, among other measures featuring a long-awaited remedy to the so-called Virgin Media problem. A July 2024 judgment of the Court of Appeal in Virgin Media Ltd v NTL Pension Trustees II Ltd and others [2024] EWCA Civ 843 created a precedent with potentially far-reaching consequences for former contracted-out, salary-related occupational pension schemes. The Court of Appeal, in a unanimous decision, threw out the employer’s appeal and agreed with the High Court that, in the absence of actuarial confirmation, every modification to benefits within contracted-out salary-related occupational pension schemes was invalid......

Hannah von Dadelszen, who heads fraud and economic crime at the Crown Prosecution Service ( CPS), stated the organisation intends to unveil a five-year strategy tackling serious economic and organised crime by late 2025. She described the proposals as 'ambitious', predicting they would expand the CPS’s influence worldwide. Von Dadelszen added the strategy would serve as a 'route map' for prosecuting economic crime cases......

Tinkler v HMRC [2025] UKFTT 1016 ( TC) The taxpayer filed returns over seven years on the footing that he himself ran a single trade comprising horse breeding alongside the training and racing of horses. HMRC opened enquiries and served closure notices which, in six of those years, asserted that the trading losses had been exaggerated. HMRC further maintained that, in its view, the taxpayer conducted a trade as a breeder, but that the horse racing activity did not amount to a trade. This led to a significant reduction in the overall quantum of the losses. In the seventh year the taxpayer showed a profit; the closure notice stated that this profit was overstated on the same footing. Ahead of the appeal, HMRC produced a statement of case setting out several alternative contentions. The taxpayer asked the FTT for a...

Lexgreen Services Ltd v HMRC [2025] UKFTT 1019 ( TC) This served as a lead case under Rule 18 of the Tribunal Procedure ( First-tier Tribunal) ( Tax Chamber) Rules 2009. The single question of law identified pursuant to Rule 18 was whether a company that had made contributions to a trust is liable for any inheritance tax arising on the trust’s tenth anniversary by reason of IHTA 1984, s 201(1)(d). The appellant, Lexgreen Services Ltd, created a remuneration trust in 2005 and, over the ensuing years, paid sums into the trust totalling £6.5m. A company incorporated in Jersey was appointed as trustee. It was common ground that, at the trust’s ten-year anniversary in 2015, a tax charge arose (under IHTA 1984, s 64). In 2020, HMRC issued a Notice of Determination, contending that the appellant was liable for that charge pursuant to IHTA 1984, s...

In March 2025, HM Treasury revealed plans to scrap the PSR, the watchdog for key payment rails including Faster Payments, BACS and Link, as well as the Visa and Mastercard card schemes. The PSR had earned prominence through headline-making actions, from pushing banks and payment providers to refund victims of authorised push-payment fraud, to probing the charges levied by Visa and Mastercard. The UK remains the sole nation with a standalone payments regulator, and the decision to dissolve it was framed as cutting compliance burdens for firms while simplifying reporting duties and sector oversight across the ecosystem. Ministers pledged to consult on proposals for reallocating payments responsibilities over summer 2025. Yet by July 2025, they quietly signalled—buried within a 76-page financial services growth strategy document—that the timetable had shifted to September 2025. That does not mean the market is clueless about the likely...