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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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Many assume pension schemes are outside the tax net. In fact, for numerous funds, investment taxation can be material, notably withholding taxes arising on share dividends. That said, avenues may exist to reclaim part or all of this burden. This Practice Note sets out the legal framework permitting recovery of EU withholding taxes that would otherwise be lost. Why is EU withholding tax reclaimable? A range of European Union ( EU) Member States ( Member States) levy withholding tax ( WHT) on domestically sourced dividend distributions made to pension funds that are not resident. This often contrasts with the position of domestic pension funds, which may benefit from an exemption from the same WHT. Although taxing powers sit outside EU competence, the EU free movement of capital is sufficiently wide to catch national tax rules that, subject to the tests listed below, treat resident and...
FORTHCOMING CHANGE: This Practice Note sets out the law as it currently stands, though elements could be affected by the Digital Omnibus proposals released on 19 November 2025 under the European Commission’s ‘simplification’ agenda. For details, see Practice Note: EU Digital Omnibus—tracker. It introduces the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation ( EU) 2016/679 ( EU GDPR), and the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation, Assimilated Regulation ( EU) 2016/679 ( UK GDPR). The UK data protection law collection and the EU data protection law collection compile further core guidance on these regimes and are recommended starting points for research. In brief, data protection law across the EEA (the EU together with Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein) and the UK aims to ensure that information about living individuals (‘personal data’) is treated fairly and responsibly. To that end, both EEA and UK data protection laws impose...
Development of the doctrine of estoppel Estoppel is the commonly used label for the equitable doctrine which holds that where one individual ( A) causes another ( B), whether through words or conduct and whether explicitly or by implication, to accept a particular state of affairs as true, A ought not later to resile from the representations or acts that induced B to that belief, where it would be unjust or unconscionable for A to do so. Put shortly, where A has by statement or deed led B to that belief, A should not later contradict it if doing so would be unconscionable. Over time, the doctrine has expanded beyond its initial confines, and today the courts (both in England and Wales and elsewhere) recognise and apply a range of distinct forms of estoppel to meet the needs of particular cases......
The doctrine of estoppel Lord Denning MR once hailed the doctrine of estoppel as among the law’s most adaptable and valuable tools. Estoppel is an umbrella concept describing circumstances in which a court prevents a party from putting forward assertions that conflict with a stance that party has earlier adopted. In effect, it stops a litigant advancing a case inconsistent with the position it has previously asserted. Ordinarily it operates only where there has been reliance on a representation previously made by the other party to the dispute. Its availability is therefore linked to the reliance shown on that earlier statement. There remains active academic discussion about whether estoppel is properly a rule of evidence or a rule of law, and about whether it can ground a positive claim or is confined to use as a defence. Although estoppel...
FORTHCOMING CHANGE : On 3 December 2025, Torsten Bell set out proposals to produce guidance on fiduciary duties, clarifying how broader considerations can be incorporated within existing obligations, including system-wide risks like climate change and the enduring effects of investments on members’ outcomes. The guidance will also explain how trustees may reflect members’ views, and will restate the requirement to weigh all financially material factors, while remaining aligned with acting in members’ best interests. Efforts to give this guidance statutory force via the Pension Schemes Act 2026 did not succeed, but the government confirmed it remains committed to developing it. For more detail, see the DWP Parliamentary response of 19 January 2026 and the House of Lords Hansard debate of 26 March 2026. Meaning of ‘ ESG’ and ‘stewardship’ ESG The expression ‘...
What are guaranteed minimum pensions? Guaranteed minimum pensions ( GMPs) came into being on 6 April 1978, arriving at the very moment the State Earnings- Related Pension Scheme ( SERPS) was launched. The legislation in force at the time — namely the Social Security Act 1975 and the Social Security Pensions Act 1975 — allowed an employee’s employment to be contracted out of SERPS provided particular conditions were met. In essence, those conditions required the employee to be enrolled in a pension scheme that promised to pay a pension of at least a guaranteed minimum amount. That guaranteed minimum was intended to match the pension the employee would otherwise have received under SERPS. Generally, it was expected that the benefits actually payable from the relevant scheme would exceed the GMP. The principal appeal of contracting-out was that, because the state would not be...
THIS PRACTICE NOTE RELATES TO REGISTERED PENSION SCHEMES Enhanced protection was among the initial two protections available to pension savers on A‑day (6 April 2006), when the registered pension scheme framework and the lifetime allowance concept were first brought in by the Finance Act 2004 ( FA 2004). The second protection launched on A‑day was primary protection. In contrast to primary protection, anyone could apply for enhanced protection irrespective of the amount of their pension rights as at 5 April 2006. The purpose behind enhanced protection was to deliver transitional cover for individuals who, before A‑day, had already accrued pension savings that might otherwise have been negatively impacted by the advent of the lifetime allowance (which on A‑day stood at £1.5m). Although the lifetime allowance was removed with effect from 6 April 2024, enhanced protection still affords limited transitional safeguards in relation to an...
THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES IN RELATION TO MULTI- EMPLOYER DEFINED BENEFIT OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMES This Practice Note outlines the matters trustees of a multi-employer defined benefit ( DB) pension scheme should address when an employment cessation event arises that triggers a section 75 debt. An employment cessation event occurs where a participating employer in a multi-employer DB scheme has no active members while another participating employer in the scheme still has at least one active member. On such an event, a statutory liability—known as a “section 75 debt” or “employer debt”—is imposed on that employer under the Pensions Act 1995, ss 75–75A, and the Occupational Pension Schemes ( Employer Debt) Regulations 2005, SI 2005/678 (the Employer Debt Regulations). The sum due equals the proportion of the scheme’s overall section 75 debt attributable to that employer, which legislation describes as the liability share. For more detail, see...
THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES TO REGISTERED OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMES As a broad principle, and subject to the governing provisions contained in their trust deed and rules, registered occupational pension schemes may invest without limits on the nature of those investments. Nevertheless, practical departures from this broad principle do exist in practice. The most significant qualifications are the constraints set out in section 40 of the Pensions Act 1995 ( PA 1995) and the Occupational Pension Schemes Act ( Investment) Regulations 2005, SI 2005/3378 (the Investment Regulations), which significantly curb trustees’ scope to place scheme funds in employer-related investments. These limits, which this Practice Note addresses, are intended to give clear statutory support to the general tenet that scheme assets should be kept strictly separate from the employer’s property so as to provide greater security for members. The Pensions Regulator has produced guidance...
Demonstrating an employer has breached its duty of good faith is no easy matter. The implied duty of good faith (often referred to as the implied duty of trust and confidence in contractual settings) originated within pensions law in Imperial Group Pensions Trust v Imperial Tobacco ( Imperial) in 1991, and has been shaped by later judicial authorities and case law. A more contemporary formulation appeared in the High Court’s 2011 decision in the Prudential case. As the judge in Prudential observed, that duty is not simply to be fixed at the point of the Imperial ruling. That said, despite its evolution, consensus has since formed that the 2014 High Court decision in IBM v Dalgleish pushed the concept too far when, on its facts, it ultimately found an employer indeed in breach of the duty of good faith. That peak...
ESPS ( ESPS) is a trust-based arrangement created by an Electricity Council resolution on 20 January 1983 as an industry-wide pension for employees of the nationalised electricity sector. It remained a single scheme at privatisation on 31 March 1990, after which it was divided into separate sections or ‘ Groups’. The rules are not publicly accessible. For further information on statutory protections for ESPS members following privatisation, see Practice Note: — Protected Persons. Each principal electricity company participating in the ESPS forms its own Group; there are currently 23 Groups. Some Groups have a single participating employer, while others have several. Each Group is actuarially independent, with its assets and liabilities assessed on a standalone basis... Although a common scheme-wide benefit structure applied at the point of privatisation, since then each Group has been able to offer different benefits to its members. The ESPS rules...
FORTHCOMING DEVELOPMENT : Section 10 of the Finance Act 2022 is set to raise the normal minimum pension age ( NMPA) from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028, excluding members of the public service pension schemes for firefighters, police and the armed forces. The Finance Act 2022 will also grant members of registered pension schemes the ability to access their benefits before reaching age 57 if, on or before 4 November 2021, they either held an ‘unqualified right’ to take benefits or were already in the course of a substantive transfer to a scheme offering an unqualified right to a protected pension age below 57 on or before 4 November 2021. To make effective use of this new 2028 protection, the scheme’s rules must, as at 11 February 2021, have included an unqualified right to take the entitlement to scheme benefits before age 57. For...
In collaboration with James Borshell and Knights. The UK runs a Dormant Assets Scheme through which certain dormant assets can be moved to a fund administered by an arm’s length HM Treasury ( HMT) owned company, which assumes responsibility for any potential claims by the owners of those assets so that transferred sums can be repaid on request, from time to time, and channels any surplus generated by the fund to support investment in communities across the UK. First created by the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008 ( DBBSA 2008), the Dormant Assets Scheme (the Scheme) has been widened by the Dormant Assets Act 2022 from dormant bank and building society accounts to other asset types, including particular forms of registered personal pension schemes. This Practice Note explains the background to the Scheme and how the changes...
THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES TO PERSONAL PENSION SCHEMES This Practice Note considers the disclosure obligations that applied to trustees of personal pension schemes prior to 6 April 2014 under the Personal Pension Schemes ( Disclosure of Information) Regulations 1987, SI 1987/1110. Those regulations were repealed with effect from 6 April 2014 and therefore no longer apply. In this Practice Note, references to ‘trustees’ should, for a contract-based personal pension, be read as including the managers of the scheme. For guidance on the disclosure rules that applied to occupational pension schemes before 6 April 2014 under the Occupational Pension Schemes ( Disclosure of Information) Regulations 1996, SI 1996/1655, see Practice Note: Occupational pension schemes—disclosure requirements before 6 April 2014. From 6 April 2014, the disclosure regime for occupational and personal pension schemes was consolidated and harmonised into a single set of...
THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES ONLY TO DEFINED BENEFIT AND HYBRID OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMES Purpose of admissible rules During an assessment period, trustees must run the scheme and provide benefits to members in line with the scheme’s admissible rules, as defined in paragraph 35(2) of Schedule 7 to the Pensions Act 2004 ( Pe A 2004). The Pension Protection Fund ( PPF) issued guidance for trustees on applying those admissible rules during the assessment period, with examples, in the Appendix to the Financial Management section of its Detailed Trustee Guidance. This material was archived when the PPF changed its website in December 2018, but it remains helpful for understanding what counts as an admissible payment. At the end of the assessment period, if the PPF takes responsibility for the scheme and the scheme enters the PPF, the PPF will provide compensation to members and their...
This Practice Note considers the pension aspects that arise on transactions (including share sales) within the scope of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the Takeover Code). For pension issues of more general application to share sales, see Pension issues in share sales—an introduction. The Takeover Code The Takeover Code is the commonly used name for the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers. It is issued by the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers (the Panel), the independent supervisory body for corporate transactions under Part 28 of the Companies Act 2006. Purpose of the Takeover Code The Takeover Code establishes an orderly framework for the conduct of takeovers. Its primary aim is to ensure that the shareholders of a target company are treated fairly and equally and are afforded the opportunity to decide on the merits of a takeover offer. The Takeover Code comprises...
While pension scheme incentive exercises enable employers to control and reduce liabilities within defined benefit ( DB) arrangements, they can also pose risks to the interests of beneficiaries. Their legitimacy has been queried by The Pensions Regulator and by scheme trustees. Regulatory framework A code of good practice on incentive exercises (the Code) was produced by the pensions community’s Industry Working Group. Although voluntary, the Code indicates that where advisers are uneasy about conducting an incentive exercise, such concerns ought to be notified to The Pensions Regulator. The Code first appeared in June 2012, was refreshed in February 2016 (with the updated version applying to member offers made thereafter), and was accompanied by a suite of boundary examples. In November 2019, stewardship of the Code was, in effect, transferred to The Pensions Regulator, though it is uncertain whether the Regulator will continue to maintain it. For more...
THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES TO TRUST- BASED DEFINED BENEFIT OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMES What is the balance of powers? Within a trust-based occupational pension scheme, the balance of powers refers to the way in which authority set out in the scheme's trust deed and rules is apportioned and allocated between the trustees and the sponsoring employer. Powers may sit in a number of places: with the sponsoring employer alone with the trustees alone with the sponsoring employer and the trustees acting together with a third party (eg the scheme actuary) In addition, some powers will require agreement or consultation with another party as part of the process. The sponsoring employer usually determines the balance at the outset, when the scheme is set up and the trust deed and rules are drafted. Amendments made while the scheme is running can shift the balance between the trustees and the sponsoring employer. The balance differs from...
FORTHCOMING DEVELOPMENT : Section 10 of the Finance Act 2022 will raise the normal minimum pension age ( NMPA) from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028 (excluding members of the firefighters, police and armed forces public service pension schemes). The Finance Act 2022 will also permit members of registered pension schemes to access benefits before 57 where, on or before 4 November 2021, they either held an ‘unqualified right’ to take benefits, or were already undertaking a substantive transfer to a scheme that provided an unqualified right to a protected pension age below 57 on or before 4 November 2021. To rely on this 2028 protection, the scheme’s rules must, as at 11 February 2021, have contained an unqualified right to take entitlement to scheme benefits before age 57. For more detail, see Practice Note: Increasing the normal minimum pension age ( NMPA) to...
THIS PRACTICE NOTE APPLIES TO DEFINED BENEFIT ( DB) OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEMES Many employers opt to wind up their company’s DB pension arrangement as part of a wider de‑risking strategy. In other circumstances, an employer’s insolvency may result in the scheme entering wind‑up, activating the relevant provisions set out in the scheme rules. Where the wind‑up is anticipated, trustees and sponsoring employers can streamline the process by preparing early and ensuring they are clear on the essential stages and principal considerations before the wind‑up begins. The principal statutory framework governing the winding‑up of pension schemes is primarily found in: sections 73–76 of the Pensions Act 1995 ( PA 1995) the Occupational Pension Schemes ( Winding Up) Regulations 1996, SI 1996/3126 (the Winding Up Regs 1996) the Occupational Pension Schemes ( Winding up etc) Regulations 2005, SI...
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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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