Legal Practice Notes

The Planning Act 2008 ( PA 2008) establishes a development consent framework for nationally significant infrastructure projects ( NSIPs) across the energy, transport, water, waste water and waste sectors. Applications for development consent orders ( DCOs) are determined with regard to National Policy Statements ( NPSs), which describe national policy for NSIPs. See Practice Notes: Permission for nationally significant infrastructure projects and National Policy Statements. Although the Secretary of State ( So S) carries the legal duty to decide, in reality government delegates the acceptance and examination of applications to the Planning Inspectorate ( PINS). For an outline of the DCO process, see: Development consent order ( DCO) application procedure—flowchart. Importance of application preparation Poorly organised, unclear or incomplete applications are more likely to be refused at the acceptance stage for examination. Once an application has been submitted and accepted,...

National Savings & Investments products National Savings & Investments ( NS& I) is an Executive Agency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Its website states NS& I ranks among the UK’s largest savings organisations, with more than 26 million customers and £100 billion invested. While best known for premium bonds, the organisation also provides a variety of savings and investment options to meet different needs, including savings certificates, income bonds and children’s bonds. All products come with 100% security because NS& I is backed by HM Treasury. NS& I products can be bought online, though new investors must supply proof of identity and address... Giving investment advice The standard health warning applies: practitioners cannot give investment advice unless authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. It is acceptable to inform clients about tax-efficient investments in general, but unless authorised practitioners must not recommend any specific options based on the...

This month saw the European Commission open an investigation into Nvidia’s planned purchase of Run: AI following a national call-in by Italy’s competition authority, the UK Government begin a consultation on reforming media merger rules, and the CMA confirm it will undertake a review of merger remedies in early 2025... EU— European Commission to investigate Nvidia/ Run: AI merger after Italy call-in On 3 September 2024, the Court of Justice overturned the General Court’s ruling and annulled the Commission’s decision to accept referrals from multiple national competition authorities to review Illumnia’s acquisition of Grail under Article 22 of the EU Merger Regulation, even though the deal fell short of the EUMR thresholds and the referring Member States’ national merger control thresholds. The judgment sparked debate over whether the Commission needs fresh tools to address so‑called ‘killer acquisitions’ of small and...

The income tax charges associated with employment-related securities and securities options Income tax liabilities tied to employment-related securities and securities options usually arise on the acquisition of securities, or because employment income is treated as arising on a later chargeable event, rather than through a cash receipt. Consequently, the employer often cannot withhold pay as you earn ( PAYE) in the ordinary manner. Specific provisions require an employer to operate PAYE in respect of these notional payments. Where that PAYE amount is not made good to the employer, an extra, punitive, income tax charge falls on the employee (or director), and Class 1 NICs for the employer and the employee also arise, to the extent of the unpaid PAYE amount......

This Practice Note offers hands-on guidance on reporting claims or potential matters under liability policies, including professional indemnity cover. For more on liability cover, refer to the Practice Notes: Liability insurance—essentials and Liability insurance—notification of claims and circumstances and defence of claims. Review your policy Most liability policies are written on a ‘claims made’ basis, obliging the policyholder to notify claims or circumstances (as distinct from loss or damage to insured property). Your first task is to examine the policy wording to determine precisely what must be notified and the timing requirements. If more than one policy might respond, evaluate each and check for any other insurance provisions (see Practice Note: Double insurance and contribution). Gather all relevant documents, including the complete wording together with schedules and endorsements. Where only a summary was supplied at placement—as is common—you may need to source the full wording from the broker or...

This Practice Note This Practice Note considers the entitlement to notice for both employees and employers under the contract of employment, meaning the notice required to end the employment contract, whether spoken or written, and covers: the impact of statutory notice provisions on the minimum notice period the point at which the notice period starts matters concerning permanent health insurance ( PHI) withdrawing a termination notice longer notice being given by the employee lawfully dismissing without notice Under contract law, an employer may give notice of dismissal at any time unless the contract, expressly or by implication, provides otherwise. No breach occurs if the employee is allowed to work their notice or, where the contract permits, is paid in lieu of notice. That said, an employee whose contractual rights have not been infringed may still hold statutory...

A Notice of Adjudication is the opening step in starting an adjudication. This Practice Note explains what to weigh up before serving the Notice of Adjudication, the reasons it must be issued and the elements it ought to include. It also offers guidance on when to serve the Notice, the manner of service and whether amendments are possible. For a Precedent Notice of Adjudication, see: Notice of Adjudication. What is the Notice of Adjudication? The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 ( HGCRA 1996) and the Scheme for Construction Contracts both require service of a written notice of a party’s intention to refer a dispute to adjudication. Under the Scheme for Construction Contracts ( Part I, para 1) this is called the ‘notice of adjudication’. This Practice Note adopts that expression, although case law and other parties may use ‘notice of intention to seek...

The Notaries Society has produced a helpful leaflet which sets out a short history and explains the work of the notaries profession, and which is available in English and in several foreign languages. History Of the three branches of the legal profession in England and Wales, the notaries profession is the most ancient, its roots lying in the civil institutions of classical Rome. Little is recorded in England and Wales before 1279, when Pope Nicholas III granted the Archbishop of Canterbury the faculty to appoint three notaries in any one year. During the reformation, the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533 ( ELA 1533) transferred to the Archbishop of Canterbury the authority to grant faculties to notaries. Statutory recognition first came with the Public Notaries Act 1801 ( PNA 1801), followed by the Public Notaries Act 1843 ( PNA 1843), the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 and,...

Norwich Pharmacal Orders ( NPOs) This Practice Note sets out what Norwich Pharmacal Orders are, explaining their nature and when they may properly be used in practice. In particular, it details the prerequisites that must be satisfied: a wrong has been committed, or is arguably committed, by an ultimate wrongdoer the applicant has a genuine intention to seek redress for those arguable wrongs the person targeted by the order is mixed up in the wrongdoing and is not a mere witness an NPO is a necessary and proportionate step in all the circumstances it is fitting for the court to exercise its discretion The Note also considers the consequences of non-compliance, the use of information obtained under an NPO in other proceedings, and the availability of Norwich Pharmacal relief in relation to disclosure required for foreign proceedings. It additionally addresses applications to discharge or set aside an NPO. For...

This Practice Note outlines the purpose and advantages of seeking a Norwich Pharmacal order, obtained so that an applicant can pursue a claim against an alleged wrongdoer whose identity was not known to it before making the application for the order. In view of the costs likely to arise from applying, including the work involved in assembling evidence, the guidance addresses the questions a prospective applicant ought to be satisfied about before deciding whether to apply. What is a Norwich Pharmacal order? Described by one judge as an exceptional jurisdiction with a narrow ambit, a ‘ Norwich Pharmacal order’ takes its name from Norwich Pharmacal Co v Customs and Excise Commissioners. In that case, the House of Lords, allowing an appeal from a Court of Appeal bench that included Lord Denning, upheld a judge’s order compelling the respondent to the...

NOTE—to check whether notification thresholds in Norway and throughout the world are met, please refer to: Where to Notify. 1. Have there been any recent developments regarding the Norwegian merger control regime and are any updates/developments expected in the coming year? Are there any other ‘hot’ merger control issues in Norway? By way of context, Norway’s Competition Act ( Act on competition between undertakings and control with concentrations of 5 March 2004, No. 12) (the Competition Act) is administered by the Norwegian Competition Authority ( Konkurransetilsynet). Under section 16, paragraph 1, the Konkurransetilsynet must prohibit concentrations that would significantly impede effective competition ( SIEC), particularly where a dominant position is created or strengthened—ie the same analytical test as under Articles 2(2) and 2(3) of the EU Merger Regulation ( EUMR). There is an independent appellate body for competition matters, the Competition Appeals Board (...

This table provides an overview of concluded investigations by Norway’s competition watchdog (the Konkurransetilsynet) into suspected cartels, restrictive agreements, and abuses of market dominance ( Articles 101/102 TFEU and national counterparts) since 2018. Note—only cases made public are included in this table here......

This Practice Note sets out practical guidance on the 16 May 2024 amendments to the Joint Committee’s Decision No 1/2023. In particular, it explains how those amendments apply in Northern Ireland, concentrating on the change under which Northern Ireland now benefits from the UK’s tariff rate quotas rather than the EU’s tariff rate quotas. Introduction Following Brexit, the EU and the UK concluded the EU‑ UK Withdrawal Agreement. Within that accord, the parties adopted the Northern Ireland Protocol. The Protocol was intended to protect the EU’s internal market; however, it gave rise to a variety of challenges for Northern Ireland which, had it remained unchanged, would have become unworkable. Accordingly, the EU and UK entered talks with the aim of identifying remedies to the problems the Northern Ireland Protocol created. In February 2023, the EU and UK reached an agreement known as the Windsor...

ARCHIVED: Due to the reforms envisaged by The Windsor Framework, the details of which were announced by the UK government on 27 February 2023, this Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. The contents of this Practice Note are correct as at 1 January 2021. For further details on The Windsor Framework and its effect on VAT in Northern Ireland, see: The Windsor Framework. The UK left EU membership on 31 January 2020. From that date, the UK entered an implementation period ( IP) during which, for many purposes, it continued to be treated as a Member State and remained bound by EU law. The IP concluded at 11pm on 31 December 2020. At that point, a body of EU-derived rights and legislation, known as retained EU law, was converted into domestic UK law. For more on retained EU law and VAT, see...

ARCHIVED: Following the reforms anticipated under The Windsor Framework, the details of which the UK government announced on 27 February 2023, this Practice Note has been archived and is no longer maintained. The information within this Practice Note is accurate as at 1 January 2021. For more on The Windsor Framework and its consequences for VAT in Northern Ireland, see: The Windsor Framework. This Practice Note addresses VAT as it applies to the movement of goods between Northern Ireland ( NI) and the EU from 1 January 2021, and as it applied to all VAT-registered businesses in the UK on and before 31 December 2020. Triangulation is an EU-based VAT simplification intended to reduce the necessity for EU businesses to register for VAT in other EU Member States. Triangulation describes a scenario in which goods are supplied along a chain involving three parties, yet those goods are...

ARCHIVED: Owing to reforms anticipated under The Windsor Framework, the details of which were set out by the UK government on 27 February 2023, this Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. The content of this Practice Note is accurate as at 1 January 2021. For further details on The Windsor Framework and its impact on VAT in Northern Ireland, see: The Windsor Framework. This Practice Note focuses on the VAT position for businesses using a Northern Ireland ( NI) VAT identifier that sell goods (which are removed from NI) to businesses located in EU member countries from 1 January 2021. This reflects the same treatment that applied to all UK VAT-registered businesses on and before 31 December 2020. A sale of goods within the EU is often described as an 'intra- EU dispatch' or a 'removal' and is distinct from an export of goods to a...

This Practice Note offers practical guidance on the arrangements created by the Windsor Framework, as follows. The guidance addresses the movement of retail goods from the UK to Northern Ireland. Introduction Under the UK– EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the UK and the EU agreed the Protocol on Ireland/ Northern Ireland. The protocol covered trade matters intended to protect the Good Friday agreement. In particular, it acknowledged that Northern Ireland forms part of the UK’s customs territory. Nevertheless, many traders encountered difficulties moving goods between the UK and Northern Ireland even where those goods were traded duty free. This arose because, in practical terms, the goods were otherwise treated as crossing an international frontier. Put differently, such goods came under customs supervision, which brought with it requirements for multiple declarations, inspections and, where relevant, rules of origin obligations. For guidance on the protocol, see...

This Practice Note outlines the Northern Ireland Assembly, explaining how its representatives are chosen and how it legislates. The wider landscape of decision-making in Northern Ireland—highlighting distinctive aspects of devolution shaped by recent history—is addressed separately in Practice Note: The process of decision making in Northern Ireland... Which voting system is used in Northern Ireland Assembly elections? Each parliamentary constituency in Northern Ireland returns five Members of the Legislative Assembly ( MLAs) using the Single Transferable Vote system. In proportion to the population it serves, the Assembly is comparatively larger than the devolved legislatures in other parts of the United Kingdom. The Assembly cannot enact laws to alter its own size unless cross-community approval is achieved... The Assembly operates on a fixed term under section 31(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, with separate provision for extraordinary Assembly elections in section 32 of the same Act......

References to the NSTA In March 2022, the Oil and Gas Authority ( OGA) adopted a new name and is now referred to here as the NSTA. For clarity, this Practice Note uses the term NSTA, even where, at the material time, the body was called the OGA. Mentions of the NSTA also encompass its former role as the OGA. Equally, we cite any documents or strategies using the updated NSTA label, notwithstanding that they may have been issued under the OGA name. For instance, what used to be the ‘ OGA Strategy’ is described here as the NSTA Strategy. Although legislation still refers to the organisation by its historic title, OGA, those statutory functions are exercised by the NSTA. Consequently, statutory citations encountered outside this Practice Note should be read, in practice, as references to the NSTA from March 2022 onwards. For fuller...

Vitiation of an insurance policy An insurance contract can be vitiated (rendered invalid) if the insured: misstates or withholds any material fact before the policy is placed, or fails to meet obligations imposed during the policy term These obligations are typically framed as warranties. In the event of: 'deliberate or reckless' non-disclosure or misrepresentation, the policy is void from inception (ab initio) a breach of warranty, cover is suspended (rather than finally discharged) and revives once the breach is remedied Where the breach is deliberate or reckless, the insurer is not required to refund any premiums paid. A breach of warranty must be linked to the particular loss at issue; the insurer cannot decline a claim where the insured’s failure to comply with the term could not have increased the risk of the loss that actually occurred in the...