Featured documents
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 Sole traders, informal partnerships and outdated partnership deeds are common.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
Most recent News
The document largely repackages the SFO’s own 2020 internal guidance and leaves the existing rules untouched. Rather than changing the framework, it provides a readable, albeit fairly high‑level, point of reference for organisations by setting out the legal circumstances in which the SFO may scrutinise corporate compliance programmes, together with the sources it will weigh when judging effectiveness. In that sense, it is a helpful tool, mirroring the SFO’s sustained push under Nick Ephgrave towards a more hands‑on model of corporate engagement. A central message is also underlined: a compliance programme must work in practice and not amount to a box‑ticking exercise on paper. The document falls short of the granularity seen in comparable materials from other jurisdictions—most notably the US. The SFO’s implicit stance appears to be that organisations already possess sufficient publicly available guidance and resources. Even so, the...
Background Born in Albania and holding dual national status, Mr Kolicaj was granted British citizenship through naturalisation in 2009. In 2018, he was found guilty of conspiring to move almost £8 million of criminal proceeds from the UK and received six years’ imprisonment. Following his conviction, the National Crime Agency advised the Secretary of State to consider depriving him of citizenship due to serious organised criminality. In January 2021, the Secretary of State served a notice of intention and, 30 minutes later, a deprivation order. The short gap was meant to stop Mr Kolicaj renouncing his Albanian citizenship, rendering him stateless and so not liable to deprivation under BNA 1981, s 40. He appealed unsuccessfully to the First-tier Tribunal......
Project One London Ltd v VMA Services Ltd [2025] EWHC 3304 ( TCC) What was the background? The parties contracted for the design and installation of mechanical services under their sub-contract, adopting the JCT Design and Build Sub- Contract Agreement Conditions 2016. The agreement included standard interim payment mechanisms, operating in the usual way. VMA lodged Application for Payment No. 8, stating £106,434.88 as the amount due (the Notified Sum). POL failed to issue either a payment notice or a pay less notice at any point. Project One Limited ( POL) initiated a TVA. VMA relied on POL’s non-payment of the Notified Sum as a defence, contending on jurisdictional and/or substantive grounds that the TVA could not proceed in the face of that non-payment, and asking the adjudicator to require POL to pay the Notified Sum without delay. The adjudicator determined that VMA had made a valid...
The ASA has published its final guidance on the promotion of less healthy food and drink. This version is largely unchanged from the earlier draft that was previously issued. For fuller detail, see Practice Note: Food advertising— New TV and online HFSS advertising restrictions and News Analysis: The implementation of advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on television and online, which analyses the updated Consultation response. Notably, it explains how the new rules apply to influencers, including that ‘gifted’ items fall within the paid-for online restrictions set out. It also notes that fleeting mentions of less healthy products—such as within a supermarket’s Christmas ad—are less likely to be caught in practice. When is a product identifiable and in scope of the restrictions? The statutory question is whether people in the UK could reasonably be expected to recognise an...
New Practice Note: Forms available in Lexis+ UK Restructuring & Insolvency Consult the Practice Note: Forms provided in Lexis+ UK Restructuring & Insolvency. For a summary of R& I induction materials, refer to: R& I induction materials—overview......
R (on the application of LXR) v First Tier Tribunal ( Social Entitlement Chamber) and others [2025] EWCA Civ 1608 What are the practical implications of this case? The judgment, with its precise treatment of what medical evidence must show, underscores the core requirements for successfully re‑opening an earlier award. In re‑examining paragraphs 114 to 116 of the 2012 Scheme, Lord Justice Singh reviewed the principal authorities— Jones v FTT ( SEC) [2018] EWCA Civ 2367, R v CICA ex parte Williams ( C/1999/8155 27 June 2000) and R ( Colefax) v FTT ( SEC) [2014] EWCA Civ 945—which all merit attention when considering re‑opening. That said, the decision’s determinative points concerned the appellant’s particular medical presentation. It was argued for him that the psychiatric evidence before the FTT was capable of demonstrating a material alteration in his condition, brought about by gaining...
Hotel La Tour Ltd v HMRC [2025] UKSC 46 The appellant, HLT, held the share capital of its subsidiary, Hotel La Tour Birmingham Ltd ( HLTB), which managed a hotel in Birmingham. That company was sold in part to help fund the build and development of a new hotel in Milton Keynes, with the remaining deficit met through a bank loan. HLT incurred professional costs of £382,900 plus £76,823 VAT, and the central question was whether that VAT could be recovered. HMRC denied the input tax deduction on the basis that the expenditure was linked to an exempt share disposal. HLT (broadly) contended that the inputs were deductible because, as a matter of fact and law, the relevant output to which the services were most closely connected was not the exempt share transaction, but its wider hotel trading business, consisting of taxable supplies. The...
In this issue: Enforcing security and property insolvency Disputes and remedies Electronic communications Key developments and horizon scanning Repairing obligations and dilapidations Property disputes in Scotland Additional Property Disputes updates Lex Talk®Property Disputes: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Dates for your diary Trackers Latest Q& As Property Disputes Highlights 2025/2026 Enforcing security and property insolvency Affirmation of bank's security in mortgage breach proceedings ( Ashrafi v Belmont Green Finance) In Ashrafi v Belmont Green Finance [2025] EWHC 3247 ( Ch), the Chancery Division rejected the appeal brought by Mr and Mrs Ashrafi, thereby upholding a possession order in favour of Belmont Green Finance (the Bank) over their property. Unable to secure a mortgage themselves, they arranged for Mrs Ashrafi’s brother, Mr Shabir, to take out the loan on the...
Al- Shiddi International d.o.o. v BN Step d.o.o. , Case No 65 0 Ps 1012588 25 Rev What are the practical implications of this case? This decision offers valuable guidance to legal practitioners, particularly within arbitration practice. The central message is a clear judicial preference to read ambiguous arbitration provisions in a manner that preserves their effectiveness. Reflecting the stance of the FBi H Supreme Court, even a loosely formulated arbitration pact should be preserved where the parties’ intention points to arbitration as the chosen forum, and courts ought to prioritise enforceability by giving effect to that intent, especially where the contract reveals a distinct preference for arbitral resolution. In this dispute, the court upheld the clause’s validity and confirmed the jurisdiction of the arbitral process, including the Arbitration Court at the Foreign Trade Chamber of Bi H, despite an imprecise reference to...
In this issue: Judicial review Planning Public procurement Education Children&39;s social care Social housing Healthcare Governance Local government finance Social care Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content New Q& As Local Government Highlights 2025/2026 Judicial review Supreme Court applies Public Interest Immunity in an inquest and overturns potential disclosure of gists ( In the matter of an application by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for Judicial Review ( Appellant)) In the case In the matter of an application by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland for Judicial Review ( Appellant), the UK Supreme Court unanimously concluded that rulings on Public Interest Immunity ( PII) are a substantive point of law. Courts must decide where the collective public interest ultimately lies, rather than simply applying orthodox public law...
In this issue: UK, EU and international regulators and bodies Accountability, culture and social governance; prudential requirements Financial crime and sanctions; consumer protection Investigations, enforcement and discipline Regulation of capital markets, investment firms and derivatives Sustainable finance and ESG; banks and mutuals UK Mi FID II and EU Mi FID II Consumer credit, mortgage and home finance; regulation of insurance FSMA regulated pensions activity Payment services and systems; fintech and cryptoassets Regulation of AI in FS Financial Services Weekly Highlights 2025/2026 New and updated content New Practice Note: The FCA Consumer Duty—application to retail banks and building societies Dates for your diary; Financial Services Enforcement Database Daily and weekly news alerts Lex Talk®Financial Services: a Lexis®Nexis community UK, EU and international regulators and bodies FCA releases outcomes report from Open Finance Sprint 2025. The...
In this issue: Arbitration in England & Wales Institutional and Ad hoc arbitration International arbitration Sector- and industry-specific arbitration Other arbitration and ADR-related news and developments Daily and weekly news alerts Updated Practice Notes Useful information Highlights 2025/2026 Arbitration in England & Wales Commercial Court rejects AA 1996, s 68 bid on exchange rates and UNCITRAL Article 38 correction application In Seacrest Group v BCPR PTE [2025] EWHC 3266 ( Comm), the Commercial Court ( Trower J) refused Seacrest’s challenge under section 68 of the Arbitration Act 1996 ( AA 1996) to a final award dated 27 September 2024, made in an arbitration conducted under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules 2021. The challenge advanced two grounds: (i) an alleged serious procedural irregularity within AA 1996, s 68(2)(a), said to arise from the tribunal’s failure to engage with...
Hotel La Tour Ltd v HMRC [2025] UKSC 46 Background The appellant, Hotel La Tour Ltd ( HLT), held the entire issued share capital of its subsidiary, Hotel La Tour Birmingham Ltd ( HLTB), which ran a luxury hotel in Birmingham. HLT also supplied management services to HLTB. By mid-2015, HLT resolved to construct and develop a new hotel in Milton Keynes. The acquisition and development were funded partly through the disposal of HLTB and partly via bank borrowing. To facilitate the sale of HLTB, HLT incurred professional fees totalling £382,900, with £76,823 of VAT charged on those services. The question on appeal is whether HLT is entitled to reclaim that VAT from HMRC. VAT charged to a consumer on goods or services is added by the trader to the sale price (output transactions), and the trader then accounts to HMRC for that amount as output VAT. Where a...
Many third-party litigation funding agreements ( LFAs) were left unenforceable after Britain’s top court categorised them as damages-based agreements in 2023. LFAs are barred from use in opt-out collective actions in the Competition Appeal Tribunal ( CAT), a forum that has seen rising popularity over the past decade. The Ministry of Justice ( Mo J) has now said it will adopt Civil Justice Council ( CJC) recommendations to undo the effects of the PACCAR decision, following its review of the litigation funding market. The announcement characterised the PACCAR outcome as restricting claimants’ access to third-party finance, leading to fewer collective proceedings being issued in the CAT. According to the government, the proposed steps will restore certainty to the litigation funding arena in the wake of PACCAR, bringing steadier conditions to the market overall, and ‘will mean......
Lawyers are urging banks, building societies, insurers, asset managers, and others to take lessons from the FCA’s 12 December 2025 action against the world’s largest building society, warning that robust policies alone won’t suffice. They say the regulated sector now faces far heftier penalties for comparable compliance lapses. Neil Swift, a partner at Peters & Peters Solicitors LLP, noted this forms part of a pattern of sizeable sanctions for weak financial controls, stressing that the regulator will adopt a tough stance where systems fall short. Future AML fines could soar The penalty might have reached £1.66bn had the FCA imposed a charge equal to 15% of relevant revenues, the “level-four factor”, which it considered commensurate with the seriousness of the breach. Even so, the FCA concluded that such a figure was disproportionate in view of Nationwide’s remedial measures, and scaled it back markedly. Lawyers warn that firms...
Background Mr Kolicaj, a dual national of Albanian origin, was naturalised as a British citizen in 2009. In 2018 he was found guilty of conspiring to move almost £8m of criminal proceeds out of the UK and received a six-year prison sentence. After his conviction, the National Crime Agency advised the Secretary of State to consider depriving him of citizenship due to serious organised criminality. In January 2021 the Secretary of State issued a notice of intention and, thirty minutes later, made a deprivation order. The brief interval was designed to stop Mr Kolicaj renouncing Albanian citizenship, which would have rendered him stateless and so not susceptible to deprivation under BNA 1981, s 40. His appeal to the First-tier Tribunal failed. The Upper Tribunal allowed his appeal, but the Court of Appeal upheld the deprivation on different grounds, finding procedural unfairness because he had no...
In this issue: EU fundamentals Competition and state aid Corporate Data protection and cybersecurity Dispute resolution Financial services Energy Environment Life sciences Regulatory TMT Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers EU Law Highlights 2025/2026 EU fundamentals Commission releases December 2025 infringement package The Commission has issued its December 2025 infringement package, outlining the EU Member States it is pursuing for breaches of obligations under EU law. The package comprises letters of formal notice, reasoned opinions and Court of Justice referrals directed to Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Austria and others. Action spans numerous policy areas, including environmental protection (water, waste, air quality, nature), public procurement, services, free movement, firearms, media freedom, child protection, energy and climate, taxation, customs, transport, financial services and competition. See: LNB News 11/12/2025 28......
In this issue: Key developments and horizon scanning Transferring property Investigating title Residential property Commercial real estate finance Property development Environment, energy and buildings Property taxes Property in Wales Property in Scotland Additional property updates this week Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Trackers New Q& As Property Highlights 2025/2026 Key developments and horizon scanning BPF opposes upward-only rent review ban in English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill The British Property Federation ( BPF) has voiced its opposition to provisions in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill that would prohibit upward-only rent reviews in all new commercial tenancies. The Bill had its second reading in the House of Lords on 8 December, with committee stage scheduled for 20 January 2026 (see Trackers). The BPF says the...
The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 It represents the end point of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which arrived in the House of Commons in March 2025. As it moved through Parliament, the Bill was repeatedly reworked at Committee, Report and Third Reading in the Commons, then further altered again by the Lords. In the government’s press release, the Act is cast very firmly as advancing a growth-first programme. It is widely hailed as a ‘landmark’ reform set to ‘tear down barriers to growth’ and to ‘get spades in the ground faster’, with Ministers explicitly highlighting its purpose in freeing schemes ‘stuck in planning limbo’ and in bringing forward more homes, cleaner energy and essential infrastructure at a much greater pace. The Housing Secretary has presented it as beginning ‘a new era to build 1.5 million homes’, while the Chancellor has...
Court of Justice rules on Czech reference concerning omission of hotel occupancy in copyright royalty tariffs and possible breach of Article 102 TFEU The Court of Justice has delivered its judgment in Case C‑161/24, OSA, arising from a Czech reference seeking clarification on whether a collective management organisation’s failure to take account of hotel room occupancy when setting royalties for licensed works can amount to an abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 TFEU. The Court held that, depending on the particular circumstances, overlooking hotel occupancy may constitute an abuse within the meaning of Article 102 TFEU. Background In December 2019, the Czech Competition Authority ( CCA) found that OSA, the Czech collective management organisation for musical and other artistic works, had abused its dominant position in the market for copyright licensing. Between 2008 and 2014, OSA applied flat‑rate royalties to hotel operators for audio and...
Popular documents
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 ]...
Discover more from LexisNexis
