1 The Employer may terminate the

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025. For guidance regarding the Act’s impact on residential tenancies in Wales, see Practice Note: Renters' Rights Act 2025—key provisions. This Practice Note covers the terms specific to secure occupation contracts under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (RH(W)A 2016). These include variation of secure contracts, withdrawal of a joint contract holder, dealing with a secure contract by way of transfer to other secure contract holders or potential successors and termination of secure contracts. It should be read in conjunction with Practice Note: Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016—when are occupation contracts secure? which covers: • when occupation will be in accordance with a secure contract (including the definition of community landlord), and • when occupation contracts made with community landlords can be standard contracts (such as introductory standard contracts and prohibited conduct standard contracts) Objectives of RH(W)A 2016 On 1 December 2022, RH(W)A 2016 came into force. It represented a significant change for the regulation of housing

What is boilerplate? Boilerplate clauses deal with the mechanics of how the agreement works. As a boilerplate clause will deal with issues such as the interpretation, validity and enforcement of an agreement, it can have a significant impact on the other clauses in an agreement and on an agreement as a whole. It is important that any such impact is intentional and not the result of a boilerplate clause being included in an agreement with little thought. It is not unusual for a boilerplate clause to be the cause of litigation. For further information, see Practice Note: The role of boilerplate. Boilerplate clauses in consumer contracts The room for manoeuvre when drafting terms and conditions for consumers, including boilerplate provisions, and implementing them, is considerably

The Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) has released the 2024 editions of its Construction Management (CM), Management Building (MC), Framework Agreement (FA), Adjudication Agreement (Adj), Dispute Adjudication Board (DAB), and Project Bank Account (PBA) contract families. Reference copies of these documents will shortly be available on Lexis+ Construction, under our sub-topic ‘JCT contracts 2024’ (within the main topic, ‘Standard form construction contracts’, or via Practice Note: JCT contracts 2024 - reference copies).

The Q&A asks what amount of stamp duty land tax (SDLT) is payable on the acquisition of a new lease where the acquisition is in pursuance of an agreement for lease that was assigned to the purchaser. Schedule 2A to the Finance Act 2003 (FA 2003) (transactions entered into before completion of contract) provides the answer. Specifically, FA 2003, Sch 2A, para 4 (assignments of rights: application of rules about

We have assumed that: ‘…the member of the RAC has provided a written nomination to the trustees of the retirement annuity contract, requesting (but without imposing any legal obligation) that the trustees distribute the death benefits to the trustees of the pilot trust. both the RAC and the SIPP are subject to the registered pension scheme regime established under Chapter 2 of Part 4 of the Finance Act 2004 this

The European Commission has announced that the European Commission's Health Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) has signed a joint procurement Framework Contract with HIPRA Human Health for the supply of their protein coronavirus (COVID–19) vaccine. According to the Commission, '14 Member States and countries are participating in this joint procurement, under which they can purchase up to 250 million doses'.

The Landlord and Tenant Act 1987 (LTA 1987) gives to tenants of residential flats contained in a building the right to first refusal of the acquisition of the landlord’s interest where a sale is proposed. The landlord is required to serve notices on the tenants informing them of the intention to dispose of an interest and providing time to consider a purchase at the offer price. The landlord cannot sell the property during that time, and breach is a criminal offence. The tenants are also able to force the new landlord to sell the property to them at the price they paid, if notice of the sale is not given to

When dealing with a discretionary or non-contractual bonus, it is necessary to consider: • to which aspects of the bonus the discretion properly applies • constraints on the employer's exercise of discretion which apply as a result of case law • the effect of any oral (or indeed written) representations made to employees about bonus • any expectations or contractual rights that may have been created by custom and practice For more detailed guidance on each of these aspects, see the section of Practice Note: Bonus schemes entitled Discretionary or non-contractual bonuses. In Dresdner Kleinwort Ltd v Attrill, the employees’ contracts

It is assumed that the statutory declaration has been sworn before, and not by, a magistrate. Under section 18 of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835, any justice of the peace, notary public or other officer authorised at the time of the passing of the Act to administer an oath may take the declaration of any person voluntarily making the declaration before them in the prescribed form. The Magistrates' Courts Act 1980, despite its title and its use of the term 'magistrates' court', still uses the description 'justice of the peace' to describe the holder of the office. In practice, most declarations are made

Arbitration analysis: In Eternity Sky Investments Ltd v Mrs Xiaomin Zhang, the English Commercial Court has rejected a challenge to an arbitration award on the grounds of public policy. Although the applicant argued that the terms of the underlying contract were unfair for the purposes of English consumer legislation, the court held that there was no ‘close connection’ with the UK and therefore that the legislation did not apply. Charlie Morgan, partner, and Elizabeth Kantor, professional support lawyer both of Herbert Smith Freehills examine the case.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has launched a consultation on the regulatory detail required to implement zero hours and similar contract measures under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025). The 85 page consultation document poses 64 questions. The consultation closes on 25 August 2026.