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This Practice Note outlines the law concerning criminal recklessness. The subjective test for recklessness Certain statutory and common law offences allow the prosecution to prove mens rea through ‘recklessness’. Put simply, recklessness is where the accused takes an unjustified risk that results in unlawful harm or damage. The House of Lords in R v G reaffirmed the subjective approach to recklessness. Before R v G, two distinct tests were used, depending on the offence charged: Subjective recklessness from R v Cunningham: the prosecution had to establish that the accused personally foresaw the risk. Objective recklessness from R v Caldwell: the prosecution only needed to show that the risk would have been obvious to a reasonable person, without proving the accused themselves foresaw it. In R v G, the House of Lords concluded that the objective test could operate unfairly where a defendant did not foresee the
This Practice Note examines the remedy of rescission, explaining when and in what manner a contract can be unwound (at common law, in equity and under statute) and thereby terminated and brought to an end. It covers the consequences and effects of rescission, the principal grounds for setting aside an agreement (misrepresentation, mistake, undue influence, duress, non‑disclosure, fiduciary misdealing and bribery) and the main obstacles to claiming rescission—affirmation, the intervention of third‑party rights and the impossibility of restitution. For further guidance on rescission in the context of misrepresentation, see Practice Note: Misrepresentation—rescission as a remedy. There are many ways in which a contract may reach its end; see: Terminating contracts—how and when a contract ends—overview for a brief and accessible summary, with links to the related further practical guidance, including Practice Note: Termination and expiry of contracts. For a table
What is a res judicata? A res judicata is a determination by a court or tribunal with jurisdiction over the cause of action and the parties, which finally disposes of the issues decided so they cannot be litigated again by those bound, save on appeal. Final judgments entered by default or by consent fall within this concept, whereas rulings on purely procedural points and any decision lacking finality do not. The doctrine’s aim is to bring litigation to an end and shield parties from being harassed by the same dispute twice. in personam—binds the parties and their privies in rem—binds all persons, privy or otherwise (ie a judgment binding the whole world) A party may rely on res judicata: as an estoppel to defeat an opponent’s claim or defence; and/or as the basis of their own claim or
The offence of causing grievous bodily harm with intent Wounding or causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent can be tried solely in the Crown Court on indictment. Elements of the offence Under the Offences against the Person Act 1861 (OATPA 1861), the prosecution must establish that the defendant unlawfully and maliciously: wounded with the intention of causing GBH, or caused GBH with that intention, or wounded intending to resist or prevent the lawful arrest or detention of any person, or caused GBH intending to resist or prevent the lawful arrest or detention of any person ‘Unlawfully’ and ‘maliciously’ Unlawfully The wounding or causing of GBH must be unlawful. Such conduct may be lawful if used: in self-defence in defence of another in defence of property for the prevention of crime where the victim gave express or implied consent For further information on these defences, see below:
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This Practice Note considers the situations in which an award of compensation may be reduced for early receipt, i.e. where a sum is paid before the date on which it would have been paid had the person remained in employment. Claimants who succeed in wrongful dismissal actions, resulting in an award of compensation, may be paid certain amounts either before or after the dates on which those amounts would have been received had their employment continued. Where a sum is paid before the date on which it would have fallen due if the individual had stayed employed, a deduction for early receipt may be appropriate, as outlined below. Where a sum is received after that date, the claimant will be entitled to interest (see Practice Note: Interest in wrongful dismissal claims). Discount for accelerated...
The legal technology landscape is changing at pace, spawning a fresh vocabulary of AI-related terms and expressions. For those who are not product developers or software engineers, it is useful to clarify what these phrases mean. This Practice Note is intended to help legal professionals gain a clearer grasp of key Artificial Intelligence ( AI) concepts. For further detail on the technology underpinning AI, see Practice Note: Artificial intelligence and machine learning—an introduction to the technology. The Basics Algorithm: a coded series of instructions within software that resolves a problem or executes a computation. Artificial Intelligence ( AI): computer software and systems capable of exhibiting human intelligence. They can learn, plan, reason, or handle natural language as they operate, rather than relying only on pre-programmed tasks; for example, speech recognition, computer vision, translation between natural languages, and other mappings of inputs. In the UK and EU,...
ARCHIVED: This Practice Note is archived and is not maintained. This legislation tracker records legislation which came into force in 2025, presented by date in chronological order. Legislation is listed in chronological date order. Links to news reports are included where appropriate in this tracker. Information on legislation commencing after 2025 appears in Practice Note: Legislation tracker— Employment. For legislation in force before 2025, see the following Practice Notes. Entries are ordered chronologically. Archived—2024 Legislation tracker— Employment Archived—2023 Legislation tracker— Employment Archived—2022 Employment horizon scanner—dates for your diary Legislation in force— January 2025 Commencement date (unless otherwise indicated): 1 January 2025 Legislative change Recognition of professional qualifications The Recognition of Professional Qualifications and Implementation of International Recognition Agreements ( Amendment) ( Extension to Switzerland etc) Regulations 2024, SI 2024/1379 give effect to the UK– Switzerland Recognition of Professional...
ARCHIVED: This Practice Note outlines how UK qualifications are recognised across the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, and how the UK recognises professional qualifications obtained in other jurisdictions. Legal context UK-qualified professionals delivering services abroad (and those qualified overseas working in the UK) must ensure they are authorised to practise in the relevant jurisdiction, even where work is temporary or occasional. Recognition of professional qualifications is a mechanism that enables a professional qualified in one country to work in another with minimal formalities and without needing to re-qualify. This is especially significant for regulated professions, including medics, architects, lawyers or statutory auditors, who intend to establish in, or provide their services to, another country. To identify which professions are regulated in the UK and obtain regulator contact details, see the GOV. UK website here. Do note, however, that recognising...
FORTHCOMING CHANGE: Under the Paternity Leave ( Amendment) Regulations 2024 (currently in draft) and the Statutory Paternity Pay ( Amendment) Regulations 2024, SI 2024/121, the key updates, scheduled to take effect on 8 March 2024, are as follows: employed fathers and partners will (a) gain the option to split the existing entitlement of up to two weeks’ leave into two separate, non-consecutive one-week blocks; and (b) be permitted to take that leave at any point within the first year, rather than solely within the initial eight weeks following birth or placement for adoption. Further, for births, the notice period for intending to take leave will be reduced to just 28 days before the dates on which each period of leave (and pay, where eligible) is to be taken. For adoptions, the notice requirement will continue to be 7 days from the adopter being...
ARCHIVED: This Practice Note sets out the range of Coronavirus ( COVID-19) international travel and quarantine guidance issued, and supplies tracked-change editions that mark revisions from one release to the next, allowing practitioners to determine swiftly which version of the relevant guidance was operative on any particular date. It is not updated and is provided for background reference only Distinct sections of the Practice Note include: Roles that qualify for travel exemptions Test to Release for international travel Testing before you travel to England Red list of countries and territories Travelling to England from another country during coronavirus DHSC: booking and staying in a quarantine hotel if you have been in a red list country How to self-isolate if you test positive for coronavirus ( COVID-19) after international travel Managed quarantine: what to expect Employer testing duty ...
ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained Employment law dates for your 2024 diary This Practice Note provides a concise overview of major legal developments that affected employment lawyers throughout 2024. It outlines, month by month, the key dates relevant to the profession, arranged chronologically and spanning case law, legislation and consultations. The schedule is designed to help practitioners track significant milestones across the year with clear references to subject areas and event types. Further detail and related news coverage are available in the following resources: Case tracker— Employment Archived—2024 Case tracker— Employment Legislation tracker— Employment Archived—2023 Legislation tracker— Employment Consultation tracker— Employment January 2024 1 January 2024 — Legislation in force — Brexit and retained EU law: The Retained EU Law ( Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 ( Commencement No......
ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. This legislation tracker captures laws that took effect in 2024, presented in chronological order. It also references the Private Members’ Bill that lapsed at the end of the 2023–24 parliamentary session on 30 May 2024, when Parliament was dissolved ahead of the General Election on 4 July 2024. Where relevant, it provides links to news coverage and parliamentary Bills offering comprehensive details on the applicable legislation. For details on measures that have recently commenced or are due to come into force shortly, see Practice Note: Legislation tracker— Employment. Information on legislation commencing after 2024 can be found in Practice Note: Legislation tracker— Employment......
Employment law dates for your 2022 diary This Practice Note summarises the principal legal changes that affected employment lawyers across 2022. The tables that follow present, in chronological sequence, dates important to employment practitioners, spanning cases, legislation and consultations, arranged by month for the year, covering developments across the entire period......
This employment consultation tracker details consultations, calls for evidence and inquiries (collectively referred to here as ‘consultations’) conducted by the UK government (and other bodies) that have an impact on employment law, which have closed and for which responses have been published between 2016 and 2024. Entries are grouped by topic and ordered by response or outcome date in reverse chronology, so the latest appears at the top of the relevant topic table. To view the status of open consultations, and closed ones where responses are still being analysed, see: Consultation tracker— Employment. For consultations issued relating to the Employment Rights Act ( ERA 2025), see: Employment Rights Act 2025—tracker— Consultations issued relating to the ERA 2025. For a summary of current key legal developments, including consultations, expected to impact employment lawyers, see: Employment horizon...
ARCHIVED: This archived Practice Note compiles the various iterations of Coronavirus ( COVID-19) guidance and advice that were withdrawn or replaced, issued by the Department for Health and Social Care ( DHSC), the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy ( BEIS) and the Cabinet Office. It provides tracked-change comparisons between versions so practitioners can readily determine which version of the relevant guidance was in force on any particular date. It is not maintained and is supplied for background information only. Separate sections of the Practice Note cover: Get coronavirus tests for your employees How to treat certain expenses and benefits provided to employees during coronavirus HMRC guidance: Check if you can claim back Statutory Sick Pay paid to employees due to coronavirus ( COVID-19) UKHSA: people with COVID-19 and their contacts Coronavirus: how to stay safe and help prevent the spread HSE: Protect vulnerable workers during the...
ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. It provides an overview of Opinion 2/2017 from the Article 29 Data Protection Work Party (called in this Practice Note the Article 29 Opinion), addressing the impact of Regulation ( EU) 2016/679, EU GDPR on processing employee data within the employment relationship and on the equilibrium between employers’ legitimate interests and employees’ reasonable privacy expectations in this context. Although grounded in Directive 95/46/ EC, the Data Protection Directive, the Article 29 Opinion anticipated duties arising under Regulation ( EU) 2016/679, EU GDPR, which, when the Article 29 Opinion appeared, had yet to take effect and was not in force at that time. From IP completion day (11 pm on 31 December 2020), Regulation ( EU) 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR) became retained EU law (see Practice Note: Retained EU law in...
ARCHIVED This archived Practice Note includes PDF versions of the various Health and Safety Executive ( HSE) coronavirus ( COVID-19) working safely guidance, as it was last published on 31 March 2022. From 1 April 2022, the HSE working safely advice was withdrawn, and HSE’s coronavirus content has been condensed into a single page: Coronavirus ( COVID-19)— Advice for workplaces. This change reflects the shift from COVID-19 restrictions to public health advice and provides links to general guidance on: ventilation in the workplace infections at work For those advising on pending and potential matters involving possible employer liability for work-related claims, the prevailing government and HSE......
Coronavirus ( COVID-19)-related legislation of relevance to employment practitioners ARCHIVED: This Practice Note is archived and is not being maintained. Where appropriate, links to news coverage giving full details of the relevant legislation are included. For a general Coronavirus ( COVID–19) legislation tracker, see Practice Note: Coronavirus ( COVID-19)—legislation tracker [ Archived]. Commencement date (unless otherwise indicated) Legislative change 30 November 2024 Coronavirus: Temporary Justice Measures ( Scotland) The Coronavirus ( Recovery and Reform) ( Scotland) Act 2022 ( Extension and Expiry of Temporary Justice Measures) Regulations 2024, SSI 2024/322, prolong for a further 12 months certain temporary justice measures in the Coronavirus ( Recovery and Reform) ( Scotland) Act 2022 applicable in Scotland, shifting the expiry from 30 November 2024 under SSI 2024/360 (see below) to 30 November 2025, see LNB News 07/11/2024 16. 20 September 2024 Coronavirus: Remote hearings ( Northern...
ARCHIVED: This Practice Note sets out the different iterations of guidance and advice issued by Acas, the Cabinet Office, HMRC and the UK Health Security Agency ( UKHSA) (previously Public Health England ( PHE)), and includes tracked-change editions that display amendments from one release to the next, helping practitioners quickly identify which version of the applicable guidance was in force on any specific date. It is no longer updated and is provided solely as background material. In every instance, the guidance versions appear in reverse chronological sequence, with the latest first. For a guidance tracker covering: the various iterations of current guidance and advice from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy ( BEIS), see Practice Note: Coronavirus ( COVID-19)—guidance tracker for employment ( BEIS working safely guidance to 1 April 2022) [ Archived] and Coronavirus (...
Case tracker— Employment This tracker presents a curated selection of important employment judgments delivered in 2026. Information on ongoing significant cases can be found in Practice Note: Case tracker— Employment. For collections of notable employment decisions issued since 2017, see: Archived—2025 Case tracker— Employment Archived—2024 Case tracker— Employment Archived—2023 Case tracker— Employment Archived—2022 Case tracker— Employment Archived—2021 Case tracker— Employment Archived—2020 Case tracker— Employment Archived—2019 Case tracker— Employment Archived—2018 Case tracker— Employment Archived—2017 Case tracker— Employment Where available, links to Employment news analysis reports are provided. Cases are organised by topic. The Lexis Nexis® Employment team is always happy to receive details of additional cases that could be of interest to subscribers......
ARCHIVED: This archived case tracker presents a curated selection of notable employment judgments issued in 2024. For details on important ongoing matters, see Practice Note: Case tracker— Employment. Where available, links to Employment news analysis reports are included. Cases are arranged by topic. The Lexis Nexis® Employment team welcomes submissions of other decisions that may interest subscribers. Please use the ‘ Feedback’ option above and the Lexis Ask function (see Lexis Ask button below) to share details... Cases by topic Case Name: Tesco Stores Ltd v Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers ( USDAW) & Others Case citation: [2024] UKSC 28, [2024] IRLR 998, [2025] ICR 107 Topic: Employment contract Main issue: Whether Tesco could end employees’ contracts to strip out ‘retained pay’—a permanent financial contractual entitlement—and then propose re‑engagement on new terms excluding retained pay Case history:...
This case tracker contains a selection of significant employment judgments handed down in 2023. For information on notable ongoing matters, refer to Practice Note: Case tracker— Employment. Where available, links to Employment news analysis are included. The Lexis Nexis Employment team welcomes details of additional cases that may interest subscribers; please use the ‘ Contact Us’ button above and the Lexis Ask function to share them. Kocur v Angard Staffing Solutions Ltd and anor Number: UKSC 2022/0063 Topic: Agency workers Main issue: Whether, as determined by the EAT and the Court of Appeal, the entitlement of agency workers to be informed about job vacancies does not extend to equal rights to apply for and/or be considered for notified internal opportunities; see report of 6 January 2021 and case digest [2022] All ER ( D) 84 ( Feb). Case history:...
This Practice Note explains the apprenticeship levy in detail, describing a charge payable by certain employers and set at 0.5% of the employer’s total annual pay bill. An annual allowance of £15,000 for employers applies, meaning the levy falls due only where an organisation’s annual pay bill exceeds £3m. The apprenticeship levy is run by HMRC within the real time information ( RTI) reporting system, and employers account for and pay it through the PAYE mechanism. History of the apprenticeship levy The apprenticeship levy has been in place, and payable, since 6 April 2017. It was brought into effect by the Finance Act 2016 ( FA 2016), having first been flagged in the Summer Budget 2015. Its purpose was to significantly raise both the volume and the quality of apprenticeships in England, through the creation of an...
This Practice Note examines the statutory right to paid time off for antenatal care for pregnant employees and agency workers This Practice Note considers the statutory entitlement under the Employment Rights Act 1996 ( ERA 1996). An employer—or, where relevant, a temporary work agency or hirer—must not unreasonably prevent a pregnant employee, or a pregnant agency worker, from taking time away from work to attend antenatal appointments for antenatal care. Such time off for antenatal appointments must be paid. There is also a distinct entitlement to unpaid time off during working hours to accompany a pregnant woman to an antenatal care appointment: see The right to time off to accompany to antenatal appointments, below. Comparable provisions apply for time off to attend adoption appointments—see Practice Note: Time off work for adoption...
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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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