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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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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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Any broadening of the definition would have enabled more SMEs to bring matters to the FOS. Here, we explore the implications of that step. In March 2023, the FCA issued a call for evidence to revisit the existing SME thresholds—fewer than 50 employees and an annual turnover under £6.5m, or a balance sheet below £5m—for acts and omissions, and to assess whether they still align with the FOS policy objective: to ensure the FOS can be accessed by SMEs likely to lack the means to resolve or pursue disputes with financial services firms through the legal system, and to reinforce firms’ incentives to settle matters swiftly and informally, or to prevent disputes arising altogether The FOS The service is free to use, so referring a complaint to it carries no charge for the complainant. As it operates as a no-cost forum, there is no costs...
The FCA Retail Banking Director, David Geale Appearing before the Treasury Committee, David Geale said the regulator will be able to look back and address banks getting it wrong now, once new intervention powers arrive between July and September. MPs pointed out this comes amid banks shutting 54 branches each month, with 5,828 closures since January 2015, while alternative arrangements are emerging more slowly than they would like. Geale explained that the legislation allows the FCA to go back once the rules are live. If branches are being closed now and, when the new rules are in force, a gap is identified, the expectation is that the deficiency will be resolved at that time......
In this issue: Copyright & associated rights Trade marks/passing off General IP Lex Talk®IP: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Useful information Copyright & associated rights Court dismisses application to strike out and orders trial ( Noel Redding Estate v Sony Music) In Noel Redding Estate Ltd v Sony Music Entertainment Ltd [2024] EWHC128 ( Ch), the Chancery Division considered an effort to strike out proceedings issued by the claimant companies. The claimants, two former members of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, seek to confirm that they hold shares in the sound recording copyrights in the band’s music and entitlement to certain performers’ property rights. The defendant ( Sony) pursued summary judgment and/or a strike out of the claim in its entirety, or alternatively specific parts. The court determined, among other matters, that the application would be largely refused. The claims regarding copyright and...
In this issue: Trade in goods Free trade agreements WTO Customs Lex Talk®International Trade: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content New Q& As Trade in goods Legislation to be introduced on digital labelling of products The Department for Business and Trade will introduce legislation to allow digital product labelling and to maintain indefinite recognition of the CE marking for goods such as toys and machinery. With digital labelling, companies can place regulatory or manufacturing details online instead of printing them on the product. These reforms follow the Product Safety Review consultation and engagement with industry. See: LNB News 25/01/2024 19. Free trade agreements New EU- UK joint solution under Windsor Framework on TRQs adopted The European Commission has endorsed a proposal outlining a new EU- UK joint solution under the Windsor Framework on the use of TRQs by...
In this issue: Data protection e Privacy Cybersecurity Reputation management Lex Talk®Information Law: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Latest Q& A Data protection Those seeking EU GDPR compensation must prove damage, a second EU court ruling confirms Mlex: The EU’s highest court stated on 25 January 2024 that people pursuing compensation under the bloc’s privacy regime must show they suffered harm from a data breach. The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Article 82 of the General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation ( EU) 2016/679, requires evidence of damage before a data controller can be ordered to compensate, reflecting a comparable conclusion in a different case from December 2023. See News Analysis: Those seeking EU GDPR compensation must prove damage, a second EU court ruling...
In this issue: Key R& I law developments Corporate insolvency processes Directors and insolvency R& I in Scotland International restructuring and insolvency Lex Talk®Restructuring & Insolvency: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts Key dates for R& I professionals Key R& I law developments Insolvency Service publishes statistics for October to December 2023 The Insolvency Service has issued Q4 2023 data on personal and corporate insolvency. It records a 3% quarter-on-quarter rise in individual insolvencies versus Q3 2023, while debt relief orders ( DROs) reached their highest volume since their launch in 2009. Company insolvencies were also 9% higher in Q4 2023 compared with Q3 2023. See: LNB News 30/01/2024 68. Corporate insolvency processes Application for an injunction to restrain presentation of a winding-up petition ( Just Trays Ltd v Emu Products Ltd) After receiving a statutory demand from Emu...
In this issue: Data protection Financial sanctions AML, CTF & counter-proliferation financing Other financial crime Other Risk & Compliance updates this week Lex Talk®Risk & Compliance: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Data protection EDPB launches website auditing tool to analyse legal compliance The European Data Protection Board ( EDPB) has introduced a free, open-source website auditing tool designed to assess compliance with the law. Within the tool, users can plan, conduct and review audits directly, import the audits’ results for appraisal, and create reports. It supports preparation and evaluation. Legal and technical auditors at data protection authorities, as well as controllers and processors, can use it to test their own sites. A second release is expected later in 2024. See: LNB News 30/01/2024 10. Financial...
Operafund Eco- Invest Sicav plc, et al v Kingdom of Spain [2024] EWHC 82 ( Comm) On 25 January 2024, Lord Justice Peter Fraser, sitting in the High Court of Justice, King’s Bench Division ( Commercial Court), delivered the judgment. Jurisdictional challenge Fraser LJ held that no decision can presently be taken on Spain’s 6 January 2023 application to set aside the court order of 14 September 2021, which registered an ICSID award made in 2019 in favour of Operafund Eco- Invest SICAV plc, incorporated in the Republic of Malta, and Schwab Holding AG, a Swiss company. He concluded that the court cannot rule on Spain’s jurisdictional objection to that registration until the Court of Appeal for England and Wales has determined the same issue concerning enforcement of an award against Spain in Infrastructure Services Luxembourg SARL, et al v Kingdom of Spain [2023] EWHC 1226 (...
R (on the application of W) v Hertfordshire County Council (transcript) [2023] EWHC 3138 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? It underscores the need for LAs to scrutinise, in more detail, first‑instance decisions on whether to carry out EHC needs assessments at the initial stage, since generic, template‑like decisions appear to be issued and then abandoned once parents commence appeals and lodge proceedings. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, SI 2014/1530 ( SEND Regulations) impose strict legal obligations on local authorities: not ‘best endeavours’ to finish assessments within defined periods, but ‘hard‑edged’ duties, with only very limited exceptions that apply. Therefore, a local authority acts unlawfully each time that it fails to complete an assessment and prepare the EHC plan within the time period specified in the SEND Regulations. The judgment also records the LA’s...
Aesthetic- Doctor.com Ltd v HMRC [2024] UKFTT 48 ( TC) It was common ground that the appellant’s director and shareholder was a suitably qualified healthcare professional, and that the services delivered by the appellant were entirely undertaken, or directly overseen, by qualified medical professionals. On that basis, one of the criteria for VAT exemption in Item 1, Group 7 of Schedule 9 to the Value Added Tax Act 1994 ( VATA 1994) was met. This conclusion applied even though the supplier was a company, because Note 2 to Group 7 extends the medical care exemption to services wholly carried out, or directly supervised, by someone who is registered or enrolled on one of the registers identified in the legislation. The only live issue was whether the additional condition for exemption in Item 1 of Group 7 was also satisfied......
What services are currently affected? Processing times for all immigration submissions could experience delays, as an unusually large number of cases are being reviewed compared with normal......
Y v Z [2024] EWFC 4 What are the practical implications of this case? Before determining the application, the court was taken through a series of authorities. Peel J concluded that those decisions do not reveal a standard tariff or an upper limit; instead, each application falls to be decided on its own facts and within its specific context, with context being decisive... Ch A 1989, Sch 1 empowers the court to order a settlement of property, commonly structured as a trust, licence or lease. Such arrangements preserve the payer’s ownership of the asset, whilst permitting the payee to live in the property with the children during their minority, or until the conclusion of tertiary education, as explained in Re A ( A Child: Financial Provision) [2014] EWCA Civ 1577, [2015] 2 FLR 625 and UD v DN ( Schedule 1, Children Act 1989; Capital...
Renaissance Securities ( Cyprus) Ltd v Chlodwig Enterprises Ltd and other companies [2023] EWHC 3160 ( Comm) What are the practical implications of this case? The dispute is a noteworthy illustration in cross‑border litigation where anti‑suit themes emerge. It examined the extra‑territorial reach of an anti‑suit injunction granted in support of an agreement by which the parties committed to London‑based arbitration. On one view, if such relief purported to restrain third parties not ordinarily within the English court’s ambit, or otherwise subject to its jurisdiction, the court could be accused of asserting an “altogether exorbitant, extraterritorial jurisdiction”. Conversely, if influential individuals in companies that had accepted English supervision were free to disregard an anti‑suit order, its efficacy and practical force would be greatly undermined. Mr and Mrs Guryev, as the ultimate beneficial owners of the defendant entities, asked the court to include a Babanaft...
Mir v Hussain and others [2024] EWHC 56 ( KB) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling underscores the stringent threshold defendants must meet when pursuing summary judgment on the basis that they are not publishers of defamatory material. Save in the most clear-cut scenarios, summary judgment will be out of reach. Whether a defendant bears responsibility for publication is intensely fact-dependent. The setting and context of dissemination will usually be known to the defendant (and not the claimant), leaving the claimant to seek an inference of participatory publication from circumstantial proof. Where the claimant can adduce enough material to justify such an inference, shutting the case out without a full trial will seldom be proper. The ruling further confirms that a claimant may plead liability by participation in publication, while in the alternative relying upon agency...
Antitrust CMA launches Chapter II investigation into Vifor Pharma regarding the supply of intravenous iron deficiency treatments to the NHS The Commission stated it has opened a Chapter II investigation, under the Competition Act 1998, into Vifor Pharma ( Vifor), following concerns of a suspected breach of competition law linked to the supply of intravenous ( IV) iron deficiency treatments provided to National Health Service ( NHS) patients across the UK......
UK Grid Solutions Ltd and Amey Power Services Ltd v Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission Ltd [2024] CSOH 5 What are the practical implications of this case? This decision reiterates the governing principles for assessing whether an adjudicator overlooked a defence advanced by the respondent. Where an adjudicator does not engage with a defence that would have been significant to the resolution of the dispute, the resulting award will be incapable of enforcement ( Construction Centre v Highland Council). That said, the lesson emphasised here is that an adjudicator is not obliged to tackle every point ventilated in the referral, so long as their reasoning sufficiently discloses the route to the conclusion reached. In addition, the judgment confirms that the court will not decline to enforce merely because the terms of the adjudicator’s orders contain mistakes, provided it remains plain what orders were in fact...
See Q& A: At what point does income from a trust become accumulated and capital in nature, so that payments of the same funds are capital and the beneficiary cannot claim income tax back at their marginal rate? For present purposes, assume the trust is discretionary and that nobody has an interest in possession in its income. Accumulation denotes the transformation of income into capital; once that has happened, any later payments out of those same sums are treated as capital, and the beneficiary cannot reclaim income tax at their marginal rate. For income to be properly accumulated, certain requirements must be met: there must exist a power or trust to accumulate, granted by the trust instrument or under the Trustee Act 1925 ( TA 1925), or possibly arising at common law—see Lombe v Stoughton (1841) 12 Sim 304 (not reported by Lexis...
Chris Hemsley, the Payment Systems Regulator’s managing director, informed the Treasury Committee that an October deadline has been firmly set for the regime obliging banks and other payment firms to refund customers deceived into sending money to criminals. He said the watchdog has imposed obligations on payment firms to observe the new rules and repay APP fraud victims from 7 October. Companies that do not comply could face fines of up to 10% of their turnover. ‘ Across the firms, some are in good shape already, while others still have distance to travel,’ Hemsley said. ‘ They will need their own arrangements in place to answer phone calls, manage cases and look after customers.’ ‘ We have a team in place and ready. They will monitor and escalate concerns where firms are unable to comply,’ he added. He noted that some newer small banks are...
Alongside the items reported in depth in the Financial Services news feed on 31 January 2024, subscribers may wish to note these further developments of particular interest: FCA: Credit reporting: Interim Working Group ( IWG) [18 Jan update] FCA: Decision Notice: Creditmax Ltd FCA: Decision Notice: Jordan Leisure Systems Limited HM Treasury Notice, Russia, ......
See Q& A: What should I include in a letter terminating my client retainer? This Q& A is for law firms regulated by the SRA. It outlines what you might include in a letter ending your client retainer and directs you to further content on when and how a retainer can be terminated. It assumes there are no concerns about tipping off or prejudicing an investigation (or similar matters)......
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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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