Legal Practice Notes

Practice Note This Practice Note explains when a child can be joined as a party to public law proceedings, outlines the process for appointing a children's guardian and a solicitor, and describes the guardian's functions, including possible conflicts of interest. It further clarifies the circumstances in which the court may diverge from a guardian's advice, and when a solicitor may represent a child without a guardian, even where the child is unable to provide instructions. It also addresses procedural detail and potential conflict of interest scenarios too......

This Practice Note explains the measures available to obtain information to find a child abducted into this jurisdiction, including seeking a location or disclosure order. It also describes the government agencies and other organisations that can be asked for information, and the procedure to trace and recover a child, together with other ways of locating and retrieving a child, for example under the provisions of the Family Law Act 1986 ( FLA 1996). For practical guidance on child abduction proceedings more generally, see the following... Practice Notes: Child abduction—emergency remedies Child abduction—introduction and issuing proceedings (1980 Hague Convention) Child abduction—1996 Hague Convention Child abduction—procedure and evidence ( Hague Convention) In some matters, the effect of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU ( Brexit) may need to be considered. At 11pm ( GMT) on 31 December 2020, the Brexit...

Dated January 2024, this guidance was issued by the Chartered Governance Institute (previously known as ICSA: The...

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: Royal Assent for the Charities Act 2022 ( CA 2022) was granted on 24 February 2022, and, as set out in the Charities Act 2022: implementation plan, its provisions are scheduled to take effect in three defined groups over three phases, namely as follows: on 31 October 2022, on 14 June 2023, and in ‘early 2024’. For an overview of the CA 2022 provisions brought into force so far, see: Charities Act 2022: information about the changes being introduced. The Act gives effect to most of the recommendations in the Law Commission’s 2017 report, ‘ Technical Issues in Charity Law’. For a summary (as at 9 April 2021) of those recommendations that have been accepted by government, see News Analysis: Government response to Law Commission report ‘ Technical Issues in Charity Law’. Matters most relevant to this Practice Note concern reforms on...

Those serving on a charity’s governing body hold responsibility for the general management and control of the charity’s administration. They are most commonly referred to as ‘charity trustees’, though they may equally also be described as trustees, directors, board members, governors, or committee members. Whatever title is used within the charity, a charity trustee’s duties are broadly the same overall. The precise legal position, however, varies in law depending on whether the charity is incorporated or unincorporated. Trustees hold, and must accept, ultimate responsibility for directing a charity’s affairs, and for ensuring it remains solvent, well run, and delivering charitable outcomes for the benefit of the public for which it has been established. The duty of care Section 1 of the Trustee Act 2000 ( Tr A 2000, s 1) sets out a statutory duty of care that applies to trustees of...

Under the Charities Act 2011 ( CA 2011), a charity in English law is an institution established solely for charitable purposes and subject to the jurisdiction of the High Court of England and Wales. The Act outlines categories of charitable purpose and imposes an overriding requirement that any purpose must be for the public benefit. The meaning of public benefit is developed by case law, with official guidance issued by the Charity Commission for England and Wales. A more recent influence on whether an institution will be treated as a charity is the Equality Act 2010 ( Eq A 2010). Charities must comply with Eq A 2010, which includes narrow exceptions concerning the eligibility of beneficiaries; this may affect how a charity defines and presents its objects. There are also provisions on the definition of a charity and charitable purposes for the law of...

Definitions of charity and charitable trust A charity is an institution established solely for charitable purposes and subject to the High Court’s charity jurisdiction. A charitable purpose falls within section 3(1) of the Charities Act 2011 and is for the public benefit. Charity trustees are those with overall control and management. Trusts are the provisions that establish and regulate a charity’s purposes and administration, whether or not they take effect as a trust. A charity relates to the legal persons; a charitable trust to the wholly charitable objects for which property is held, whether or not a charity exists. Charitable purposes must also be for the public benefit. The Charity Commission must issue guidance, and trustees must have regard to it, showing awareness, consideration in relevant decisions, and sound reasons for any departure. Benefits must produce demonstrable impact on the community or a...

Practice Note The UK charities landscape is substantial, with varied pension arrangements across organisations. Many charities now contend with financial strain driven by multiple influences, including: rising operating expenses falling levels of giving weaker than expected investment returns Local authorities are increasingly outsourcing elements of their services to the private and third sectors—frequently housing, elderly care and youth provision. Charities and other not for profit bodies often assume these roles; in this note, references to a ‘charity’ also encompass a ‘not for profit organisation’. Any charity entering into a local authority contract must recognise the pensions consequences. A notable illustration came in September 2015, when it was reported that the Multiple Sclerosis Society planned to sell a support centre to meet costs arising from participation in the Local Government Pension Scheme. This Practice Note outlines the specific pension...

Recent years have seen notable progress in the Sultanate of Oman (‘ Oman’), marked by the launch of the Oman Commercial Arbitration Centre (‘ OAC’) in 2018 (created by Royal Decree No. 26 of 2018) and the publication of its Arbitration Rules in 2020 ( OAC Decision No. 8 of 2020). For proceedings seated in Oman, the Oman Arbitration Act ( Royal Decree No. 47 of 1997, as amended) serves as the lex arbitri, having come into effect on 28 June 1997 and later revised in 2007. The Oman Arbitration Act draws upon the UNCITRAL Model Law. It is further complemented by the Civil Procedure Law ( Royal Decree No. 29 of 2002) and by Oman’s adoption of the New York Convention ( Royal Decree No. 36 of 1998). Under Article 22 of the Oman Arbitration Act, the arbitral tribunal is...

What is an employee benefit trust scheme? An employee benefit trust ( EBT) is frequently adopted by employers as a form of tax avoidance arrangement, whereby pay is routed to staff through particular kinds of employees’ remuneration trusts. Although such trusts may appear in many guises, with various models available, the EBT is the most widespread example of an employees’ remuneration trust. EBTs can also be used for purposes beyond tax avoidance. For further reading on EBTs, see: the following resources, with some examples set out below: Disguised remuneration and EBTs—overview Practice Note: What is an employee benefit trust? One principal aim of channelling remuneration via an EBT is to maximise the amount received by the employee, by permitting both employer and employee to avoid liability to income tax and Class 1 National Insurance contributions ( NICs). Put another way, inserting the trust...

It is fairly common for bankruptcy and divorce to be underway at the same time, and for each process to affect the other. For background and a fuller explanation of their interplay, see Practice Note: The impact of bankruptcy on divorce proceedings. Because bankruptcy can bear directly on divorce-based financial relief applications (often referred to as property adjustment orders), situations do arise in which a less scrupulous spouse may permit, or even precipitate, their own bankruptcy so as to derail existing divorce proceedings. In those scenarios, both the family court and the bankruptcy court hold powers, where the facts justify it, to scrutinise and challenge the making of the bankruptcy order and the overall consequences it produces. A summary of the challenges available The non‑bankrupt divorcing spouse has avenues to challenge, available in both the bankruptcy and family courts where appropriate and...

This Practice Note considers challenges to the jurisdiction of arbitral tribunals under the Arbitration Law of the People’s Republic of China ( PRC) (the Arbitration Law). This Practice Note has been revised to reflect the 2025 amendments, taking effect on 1 March 2026, by the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China. All citations to provisions of the Arbitration Law are to the amended law. Disputes over a Chinese arbitral institution’s competence commonly turn on whether the arbitration agreement is binding. Under Article 5 of the Arbitration Law (as amended in 2025), arbitral tribunals have exclusive competence to hear disputes where the parties ‘have concluded an arbitration agreement’. Correspondingly, Article 5 also restrains PRC courts from taking jurisdiction ‘unless the arbitration agreement is null and void’. Accordingly, a jurisdictional objection typically targets the validity and binding effect of the parties’...

ARCHIVED: This archived guidance, from January 2014, was issued by The Chartered Governance Institute ( CGI). It outlines recommended best practice for the exercise of members’ rights by indirect investors under Part 9 of the......

This Practice Note addresses the recovery of success fees and after-the-event ( ATE) insurance premiums from the losing party where a conditional fee agreement ( CFA) was entered into and the insurance policy arranged on or after 1 April 2013. For general guidance on CFAs, see Practice Notes: Conditional fee agreements after 1 April 2013—personal injury and clinical negligence Clinical negligence claims—funding and costs— Conditional fee agreements ( CFAs) CFAs and ATE insurance policies—entered into before 1 April 2013 Success fees and ATE insurance premiums remain recoverable where the CFA or policy was agreed before 1 April 2013. It is also important to note the Court of Appeal’s decision in Simmons v Castle (2012), which brought in a 10% uplift to general damages, intended to compensate CFA claimants for the post-2013 loss of recoverable success fees. However, because success fees are still...

ARCHIVED: This Practice Note is archived and no longer maintained. Note: The Construction ( Design and Management) Regulations 2015 ( SI 2015/51) took effect on 6 April 2015, superseding the Construction ( Design and Management) Regulations 2007 ( SI 2007/320). See Practice Notes: Construction ( Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and CDM Regulations 2015—what’s changed? [ Archived]. Introduction Preparing the Construction Phase Plan (the ‘ Plan’) is a core responsibility of the Principal Contractor on each notifiable project (for details of the Principal Contractor’s duties, see the Practice Note: CDM Regulations 2007—the role of contractors [ Archived]). Alongside the ‘ Health and Safety File’ (the ‘ File’), the purpose of the Plan is to ensure health and safety, so far as reasonably practicable, throughout the construction phase of the works (see CDM Regulations 2007—the Health and Safety File [ Archived]). Please note that, within this...

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: On 23 October 2025, the DWP opened a consultation on proposals for ‘ Retirement CDC schemes’, a fresh pension design aimed solely at retired members. Under the plans, savers with DC pots could, at retirement, move their funds into a collective pool that pays trustee-run lifetime income, recalibrated each year in line with investment outcomes and the health of the scheme. These Retirement CDC arrangements would sit as sections within Master Trusts or in unconnected multi-employer vehicles. For more detail, see: Decumulation-only CDC schemes, below. For legislative consistency, the Pension Schemes Act 2021 ( PSA 2021) uses ‘collective money purchase’ for what are commonly called ‘collective defined contribution’ ( CDC) schemes. This Practice Note treats the two labels as interchangeable. Why develop a CDC framework? CDC works by sharing risk across a broad membership, allowing schemes to aim for (though not legally...

ARCHIVED This archived case hub sets out the position as at the judgment dated 17 May 2022 and is no longer updated. See further, Case facts. Outline of the CAT’s ruling on an application for a collective proceedings order by the Consumers’ Association, seeking permission to act as class representative to bring opt-out collective proceedings under section 47B of the Competition Act 1998. Latest development On 17 May 2022, the CAT handed down its judgment, finding that: the Consumers’ Association satisfies the authorisation condition; the claims to be combined satisfy the eligibility condition; a clause in the Consumers’ Association’s after-the-event insurance must be amended, but no anti-avoidance endorsement is required for its post- CPO after-the-event policies; and a CPO was granted on an opt-out basis for UK-domiciled class members and on an opt-out basis for class members domiciled outside the...

CASE HUB ARCHIVED This archive captures the position as at the judgment dated 7 March 2014 and is not updated. See timeline, commentary and related cases. Note—a later appeal was filed in the Court of Appeal—see Ryanair Holdings plc v CMA ( Court of Appeal). Case facts Outline Application to the Competition Appeal Tribunal ( CAT) to review the Competition Commission’s ( CC) final report on Ryanair’s completed purchase of a minority interest in Aer Lingus, in which the CC required Ryanair to cut its holding in Aer Lingus from 29.8% to 5%. The CAT dismissed the appeal on 07/03/2014. Parties Ryanair—the largest low-cost carrier in Europe, operating flights from 49 base airports across Europe; headquartered in Dublin, one of its biggest bases. Competition and Markets Authority ( CMA) (formerly the Competition Commission (...

ARCHIVED This archived Practice Note condenses a range of key and/or illustrative authorities on injunctive relief, with emphasis on the period from September 2019 to 31 December 2024. It is not maintained and is supplied for background only. For guidance and links to materials on the principles the courts apply when deciding whether to award an interim or final injunction, see: Interim and final injunctions—overview. For summaries of illustrative rulings from 1 January 2025 onwards, see Practice Note: Injunctions—illustrative decisions (2025)... Case details and analysis King’s Bench Division Shell UK Ltd v Persons Unknown [2024] EWHC 3130 ( KB) Judgment date 5 December 2024 Case summary This ruling illustrates the High Court granting ‘final’ injunctive relief against persons unknown (including newcomers) as well as named defendants in a protest context. Shell had earlier obtained interim orders in 2022, which were successfully renewed in 2023 and 2024 across three sets of...

CASE HUB ARCHIVED —this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the judgment of 12 January 2023; it is no longer maintained. See further, timeline. Case facts Outline Appeal challenging the General Court’s order in Case T‑472/20, which dismissed proceedings contesting the Commission’s decision of 20 May 2020. That decision refused a complaint by Mr Frédéric Jouvin alleging anti‑competitive co‑ordination by a cartel comprising several companies operating in the postal, distribution and delivery sectors ( Commission Decision C(2020) 3503 final). Outcome On 12 January 2023, the Court of Justice delivered its judgment, rejecting the appeal in full as being partly unfounded and partly inadmissible. Notably, the Court held that Mr Jouvin did not identify any error of law said to vitiate the order under challenge. It further recalled that, in the context of an appeal, and absent an allegation of distortion of the facts, the Court of...