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Introduction to statutory interpretation The aim of statutory interpretation is to determine the legal meaning of a statute, that is, the sense that expresses the legislator’s intention. The clearest guide to that intention is the statutory wording itself, read in its context and with its overall purpose in mind, and its broader legislative setting. Courts should seek to fulfil the purpose of legislation by construing its language, so far as they can, in the manner that most effectively serves that purpose. Put differently, the courts’ default method is purposive, and every enactment is to be construed with that end in view. There is a starting presumption that the grammatical and ordinary sense of an enactment reflects the meaning intended by the legislator. Where an enactment reasonably bears only a single meaning, and no other interpretative tools or
This Practice Note addresses identifying a fiduciary, fiduciary duties and obligations, the no conflict rule, the no profit rule, a fiduciary's duty of confidence, and the remedies available for breach of fiduciary duty. Who is a fiduciary? There is no definitive catalogue of relationships that give rise to fiduciary obligations at common law in every situation universally. Certain relationships are inherently fiduciary, eg trustee and beneficiary, solicitor and client, principal and agent, business partner and co-partners, together with mortgagor and mortgagee. The obligations of some fiduciaries have been set out in statute; for instance, trustees owe a statutory duty of skill and care under section 1 of the Trustee Act 2000 (TrA 2000), and directors' relationships with their companies are addressed in the Companies Act 2006 too. For guidance on directors' fiduciary duties, see Practice Note: of directors for further detailed
Definition of ADR Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is defined in the CPR Glossary as a collective label for methods of settling disputes other than through the usual trial process. Some courts adopt the term ‘negotiated dispute resolution’ (NDR) to describe resolution by alternative means; for ease, this Practice Note uses ADR. For guidance on how ADR is addressed in the various court guides, see Practice Note: ADR and NDR in the court guides. In essence, ADR is a means of resolving a dispute outside the court system. It typically involves a neutral third party who either helps the parties reach a negotiated outcome, or issues a determination of the dispute that is legally binding. A binding result can follow where the agreement to refer the dispute to ADR so provides. There are multiple forms of ADR processes. For an outline of the different types and their
In brief The British constitution is uncodified, meaning it does not spring from a single constitutional document or code. It draws on a wide range of written and unwritten sources. Alongside the principal written sources of law in England and Wales—legislation (which has also introduced international and human rights principles into our constitution) and the common law—the constitution also rests on two further unwritten bases within this system: the prerogative, and non-legal constitutional conventions. In addition, on one view the basic or prevailing principle of our constitution, Parliamentary sovereignty, is ultimately grounded in political fact rather than in law. Legislation Legislation is the foremost source of constitutional law. Acts of Parliament may set out detailed constitutional rules, or even pass authority to create them to ministers or to others. Under the doctrine of Parliamentary sovereignty, legislation is traditionally regarded as taking precedence over any other form or kind of
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This Lexis+® UK Local Government feature preserves a historical log of current awareness, consultations, legislation and developments monitored by the Education tracker, spanning the full education landscape from early years foundation stage ( EFYS) through to further and higher education. It does not address the impact of coronavirus ( COVID-19), which is covered in the Coronavirus ( COVID-19)—education tracker [ Archived] and the Coronavirus ( COVID-19)—education tracker 2020 [ Archived]. Once news, consultations and other updates are no longer current, they move to the Education tracker archive. Secondary legislation is archived two months after it comes into force, while cases and primary legislation are archived 12 months after commencement or once judgment is handed down. See Practice Notes: Education tracker 2019 [ Archived], Education tracker 2018 [ Archived], Education tracker 2017 [ Archived] and Education tracker 2016 [ Archived]. For ease of use, the...
ARCHIVED This Practice Note is archived and is no longer maintained. This Lexis+® UK Local Government resource preserves a historical record of current awareness, consultations, legislation and developments tracked by the Education tracker from 2018. Material from 2017 can be found in the Education tracker 2017 [ Archived]. For ease of reference, the tracker is organised into the following sections: Legislation and statutory guidance Consultations and developments of interest Cases Legislation and statutory guidance Further and Higher Education Higher Education ( Transparency Condition and Financial Support) ( England) Regulations 2018, SI 2018/1382 — 20 December 2018. This statutory instrument provides that the Office for Students ( Of S) must ensure the ongoing registration conditions for each registered higher education provider in the ‘ Approved’ or ‘ Approved (fee cap)’ parts of the Of S register in England include a transparency condition. It also...
ARCHIVED: This Practice Note is archived, not maintained, and will not receive updates. The transition period created to help the UK move away from the EU’s laws and institutions ended at 11 pm ( GMT) on 31 December 2020. That point—described in this Practice Note as ‘ IP completion day’—triggered an immediate and significant alteration to the UK’s legal landscape. This Practice Note sets out the effects of that change for e-commerce. How does Brexit impact E-commerce? Although EU legislation on e-commerce is largely kept in the UK as retained EU law, Brexit still has major implications for UK businesses operating in the EU. If EU law diverges from the approach taken in the UK, or vice versa, or there is further deregulation in future, the compliance load on UK organisations engaged in cross-border e-commerce will increase. E-commerce encompasses a wide array of laws,...
STOP PRESS: On 21 July 2019, Prospectus Regulation ( EU) 2017/1129 became fully effective across EU member states, and the Prospectus Directive was repealed. The Regulation now sets out when a prospectus must be published for an offer of securities to the public in the UK, or for the admission of securities to trading on a regulated market in the UK. To reflect this, the FCA has brought the FCA Handbook into line with the Regulation by removing the Prospectus Rules in their entirety and substituting the Prospectus Regulation Rules sourcebook. For more detail, see Practice Note: The UK Prospectus Regulation—essentials [ Archived] and The UK Prospectus Regulation—is a prospectus required? [ Archived]. ARCHIVED: This archived Practice Note is not maintained and is provided for background purposes only. Further information is available in Practice Note: The UK Prospectus...
ARCHIVED: This review of Trends in UK Equity Capital Markets examines ECM activity in respect of IPOs and follow-on fundraisings across both the Main Market and AIM exchanges. It comprehensively evaluates data spanning 2016 to 2018 and considers ongoing relevant legal and regulatory changes in 2018 and the opening quarter of 2019. The report also provides a detailed exploration of the current hot topics in this field, including in particular the consequences of recent changes to the Main Market IPO timetable, notably market turbulence and Brexit’s effect. Key highlights of the report include: a three-year comparison of IPO and secondary offering activity on the Main Market and AIM, concentrating on overall transaction volumes, gross proceeds and market capitalisation detailed analysis of the headline IPOs during 2018 industry sector review, summarising emerging sector......
ARCHIVED: Lexis+® UK Corporate carried out analysis to explore market trends across equity capital markets ( ECM) transactions in 2019, set against ECM activity from 2018 and 2017 for comparison. Background and approach We examined 522 secondary offerings in total—289 on the Main Market and 233 on AIM. For this review, secondary offerings cover placings, open offers, offers for subscription and rights issues delivering £10m or more in gross proceeds for the company. Where gross proceeds are quoted, they represent the amounts received by the company rather than proceeds realised by selling shareholders (if any). Percentages cited have been rounded where appropriate and, as a result, totals may not sum precisely to 100%. This examination of 2019 secondary offerings forms part of our annual trend report, designed to provide insight into the prevailing dynamics of ECM activity in the UK. The other parts of our 2019 trend...
STOP PRESS: As of 21 July 2019, EU member states began applying Prospectus Regulation 2017/1129 in full across their jurisdictions, and the Prospectus Directive was revoked. The Prospectus Regulation now determines precisely when a prospectus must be published for a public offer of securities in the UK, or for the admission of securities to trading on a regulated market in the UK. To reflect this, the FCA has brought the FCA Handbook fully into line with the Regulation by removing the Prospectus Rules in their entirety and replacing them with the Prospectus Regulation Rules sourcebook. For further details, see Practice Note: The UK Prospectus Regulation—essentials [ Archived] and The UK Prospectus Regulation—is a prospectus required? [ Archived]. ARCHIVED: This Practice Note is archived, not maintained, and provided for background information only. For additional information, refer to Practice Note: The UK Prospectus...
ARCHIVED: This Practice Note is archived and no longer maintained or updated. It reviews market patterns in IPOs and secondary offerings on the Main Market and AIM in 2022. For deeper analysis and extra insight into UK ECM developments from our external contributors, see our Market Standards UK ECM Trend Report 2022. The IPO dataset omits introductions and transfers between markets, unless otherwise stated. Market capitalisation has been determined using the closing price on the day of admission as quoted by the London Stock Exchange plc. Companies issuing GDRs are excluded from the market capitalisation figures for this dataset. The secondary offer review covers transactions raising £10m or more, excluding transactions by closed ended investment companies for the purposes of this analysis. IPOs After the record tallies achieved in 2021, the total number of IPOs fell markedly in 2022 (a trend also observed globally and more...
This Practice Note This Practice Note reviews principal UK legal matters connected to the deployment of unmanned aircraft, or drones, for leisure and business purposes. Unmanned aircraft systems are typically grouped into three broad classes recognised by regulators, covering the spectrum of activities relevant to recreational and commercial use in the UK context. The largest platforms, such as those designed for carrying passengers or for extended-range military use, are regulated as if they were crewed aircraft. Accordingly, they face comprehensive rules: airframe certification and registration, pilot licences, and operating procedures comparable to those applied in conventional civil aviation operations. This Practice Note does not address that class. A second class encompasses operations that cannot satisfy conventional certification, yet can be shown to be safe in practice. For many years, aviation authorities have possessed, and sometimes been obliged to exercise, powers to authorise such...
ARCHIVED: This archived Practice Note outlines the Data Protection Act 2018 ( DPA 2018) as it applied before 11 pm on 31 December 2020. From that date, it is provided for background only and is not maintained. For guidance on the DPA 2018 from that date, see Practice Note: The Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR. Brexit: On 31 January 2020, the UK ceased to be an EU Member State and entered an implementation period, during which EU law continued to apply until 11 pm on 31 December 2020. During this period, the GDPR applied in the UK and the UK was generally treated as an EU (and EEA) state for EEA and UK data protection law purposes. Any references to EEA or EU states in this Practice Note should therefore be read as also including the UK until the end of the...
Brexit: On 31 January 2020, the UK ended EU membership and entered an implementation period, during which EU law continued to apply. Throughout that interim window, the GDPR applies within the UK and the UK is, in general terms, regarded and handled as an EU (and EEA) state for the purposes of EEA and UK data protection law. Consequently, any mention of EEA or EU states in this Practice Note should be read as also covering the UK until the implementation period concludes. For additional guidance on that period, its expected duration, and the data protection rules anticipated to apply once it ends, see Practice Note: Brexit—implications for data protection [ Archived]. ARCHIVED: This Practice Note is archived material and reflects the position before the General Data Protection Regulation became applicable. This Practice Note is provided for background information only and is not...
The double taxation treaty passport ( DTTP) scheme The DTTP offers an alternative to the standard certified route for securing full or partial relief under a relevant double tax treaty ( DTT) from UK taxation on UK source yearly interest paid to an overseas lender that is entitled to such relief. If the application is approved, the borrower paying UK source yearly interest is freed—entirely or to the extent provided by the applicable DTT between the UK and the lender’s jurisdiction of residence—from the requirement to withhold, and to account to HMRC for, UK income tax that would otherwise arise on that interest paid to the non‑ UK resident lender. This Practice Note describes how to claim DTT relief via the DTTP scheme and sets out the next steps once the DTTP has been successfully applied to a loan. For more information on: what qualifies as...
International tax law International tax law primarily concerns states’ taxing rights. As with other areas of international law, the need to resolve these matters arises from jurisdictional conflict. Conflicts occur when more than one state claims the power to impose a similar charge on the same arrangement or transaction. There are two forms of double taxation: economic double taxation, which relates to continuity of the tax object (ie the same property being taxed), and juridical double taxation, which relates to continuity of the tax subject (ie the same person being taxed) and can be described as two or more taxes levied on the same property, on the same person, during the same period, for the same purpose Double taxation can be avoided or reduced under UK domestic law and that of other countries (see below Unilateral relief—income and capital gains), as well as through double tax...
FORTHCOMING CHANGES : At Budget 2025, the government stated it will legislate through Finance Bill 2026 (the Finance ( No 2) Bill 2024–26) to bring in measures aimed at promoters or enablers of marketed tax avoidance. These sit in Part 6 of the Bill, as introduced on 4 December 2025, and include: amendments to the DOTAS and DASVOIT civil penalty regime, enabling HMRC to issue DOTAS penalties directly rather than seeking tribunal approval a general ban on promoting marketed arrangements with no realistic prospect of success, and a ban on promoting arrangements named in universal stop regulations ( USRs). Breach of either ban could lead to publication, financial penalties, and criminal prosecution promoter action notices ( PANs). A PAN would require businesses to stop supplying goods or services to promoters of tax avoidance where those goods or services are used to promote avoidance and the promoter is in...
Scope of this Practice Note This Practice Note sets out the activities connected with administering dormant assets under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ( Regulated Activities) Order 2001, and explains how participating institutions may approach the treatment of dormant assets. It also addresses the broadening of the dormant accounts framework to encompass other categories of dormant assets. In addition, it summarises the Dormant Assets Scheme ( DAS) (as amended) and highlights the respective responsibilities of the Prudential Regulation Authority ( PRA), the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA) and the Financial Ombudsman Service in overseeing entities that deal with dormant assets. Background to the Dormant Assets Scheme: Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008 The Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008 ( DBBSA 2008) initially set the statutory basis for a Dormant Assets Scheme ( DAS) enabling specified balances in bank and...
Introduction In the 2022 Queen’s Speech, Government set out a package of reforms spanning digital markets, competition, and consumer protection. On 25 April 2023, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (the Bill) was presented to the House of Commons. The ‘ping‑pong’ phase for debating amendments between the Commons and the Lords was almost finished when the Bill entered the pre‑election ‘wash up’ process following the 2024 general election announcement. On 24 May 2024, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 ( DMCC Act) obtained Royal Assent. Despite Royal Assent, most provisions would commence by statutory instrument, save for rules on foreign takeovers of newspapers and on energy network mergers, which took effect on 24 May 2024 and 24 July 2024 respectively on those dates. On 25 November 2024, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (...
ARCHIVED : This archived Practice Note summarises the Diverted Profits Tax ( DPT) regime, which was repealed for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026. DPT applied to periods starting between 1 April 2015 and 31 December 2025. It has been replaced by the unassessed transfer pricing profits ( UTPP) rules set out in Schedule 5 to the Finance Act 2026. This Practice Note is not maintained and is provided for background only. The DPT provisions are found in Part 3 and Schedule 16 to the Finance Act 2015. The legislation introduced a tax designed to deter avoidance of UK tax by multinational groups operating in the UK. DPT features distinct rules on notification, assessment and payment, and, unlike corporation tax, it is not self-assessed. This Practice Note considers compliance and administration issues arising from the regime, including: company...
As of 31 January 2020, the UK left the EU and the EEA. This Practice Note introduces: the General Data Protection Regulation, Regulation ( EU) 2016/679 ( EU GDPR) framework (which applied within UK law up to the end of the Brexit implementation period—11 pm UK time on 31 December 2020—and continues to operate across the EEA; therefore, any references in this Practice Note to EEA or EU states should be read as also covering the UK until that period concluded) the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation, Retained Regulation ( EU) 2016/679 ( UK GDPR) framework (which applies under UK law from the end of the Brexit implementation period) Where there is no need to draw a distinction, this Practice Note refers to both as ‘ GDPR’ for ease. When looking at the routine processing of personal data, the UK GDPR and the Data...
What is disguised remuneration? For many years, HMRC has worked to ensure that rewards arising from employment are correctly brought within income tax and National Insurance contributions ( NICs), deducted by employers through the pay as you earn ( PAYE) regime. To support this objective, the Finance Act 2011 introduced the disguised remuneration rules, designed to address the use of Employer Financed Retirement Benefit Schemes ( EFRBS), Employee Benefits Trusts and other forms of ‘disguised remuneration’, so that receiving benefits is no more advantageous than taking a wage. The legislation places a PAYE duty on the employer and/or trustees of pension arrangements to collect income tax and the related National Insurance Contribution ( NIC) charges. It also serves as a clear warning to employers and the promoters of tax avoidance schemes that contrived pay structures intended to avoid, defer or lessen income tax...
FORTHCOMING CHANGE As trailed in the Autumn Budget 2024, the government set up an independent review of the loan charge. Formally launched on 23 January 2025, the review’s remit was to examine the obstacles preventing those subject to the loan charge, who have not already settled and paid their tax liabilities in full, from reaching a resolution with HMRC, and to propose ways in which they could be encouraged to settle with HMRC (see News Analysis: Autumn Budget 2024— Independent review of the loan charge). To aid the review, an official call for evidence, directed at individuals who remain within the loan charge (and their advisers), was also subsequently published on 28 March 2025. The Final Report of the review, alongside the government’s response, was formally issued at Budget 2025 on 26 November 2025......
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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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