This week's edition of Construction weekly highlights includes key construction announcements from the Autumn Budget 2025, the Building Safety Levy England Regulations 2025, the Welsh Government’s publication of the outcome of its consultation on the new higher-risk building control regime, a Commercial Court decision holding that a contract was concluded on previously negotiated bespoke terms without incorporation of the defendant's standard conditions, and that statutory implied terms applied (Tullow Ghana Ltd v Vallourec Oil & Gas France SAS), a Court of Appeal decision on the knowledge requirement for waiver by election in commercial contracts (URE Energy Ltd v Notting Hill Genesis), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)’s launch of the first global standard focused on biodiversity, guidance from the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) on embodied-carbon best practice and reporting procedures, the Infrastructure (Wales) Act 2024 (Consequential, Transitional, Revocation and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2025, the All-Party Parliamentary Group’s report on infrastructure delivery reforms, the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (CATJ)’s announcement of a disclosure review working group survey on PD57AD and use of TAR and AI in disclosure, commentary on the European Commission’s decision not to regulate third-party litigation funding, a Scottish Court of Session case on the certification of experts (Spence and another v Graham) and the Welsh Government’s built environment mission statement and digital action plan.

This edition of Employment weekly highlights includes: (1) the Department for Business and Trade consultation on reforming TUPE 2006 and abolishing the legal framework for European Works Councils, (2) the Council of Europe’s approval of the EU AI Act, (3) analysis by Martin Scott of gunnercooke LLP of a Deputy Pensions Ombudsman determination concerning automatic enrolment, (4) an EAT judgment on an appeal by civil servants claiming that a redundancy compensation scheme was discriminatory to older employees, (5) an EAT judgment on case management directions in group equal pay claims, (6) a report that three-quarters of finance professionals in the UK stayed silent after spotting or suspecting internal fraud rather than blowing the whistle, (7) a High Court decision allowing a defamation claim against statements made during a grievance procedure to proceed, (8) a High Court judgment granting an interim injunction to prevent breach of post-termination restrictive covenants and the duty of confidentiality, (9) the latest edition of the FCA’s Primary Market Bulletin, (10) an EAT judgment upholding a tribunal decision to stay a breach of contract claim for courts to determine territorial jurisdiction, (11) immigration updates concerning the EU Settlement Scheme and the Creative Worker route, (12) dates for your diary, (13) updates to our legislation and consultation trackers and our horizon scanner, and (14) a new Q&A.

The period of statutory minimum notice to be given to employees is: • no minimum in the first month of employment • one week after continuous service between one month and two years • one week for each complete year of continuous service for service between two years and twelve years • twelve weeks after 12 or more years' continuous service The parties can agree to waive their rights to statutory minimum notice, or agree to payment in lieu of statutory minimum notice. For further information generally, see our Practice Notes: Statutory minimum notice and Payment in lieu of notice (PILON). Notice pay where the employee works her notice during maternity leave The employee's entitlement to notice pay where she works her notice will depend in large part upon the contractual terms applying in any given case. Where the employee is entitled to statutory minimum period of

This practical guidance relates to the Procurement Act 2023 regime As of 24 February 2025, the main provisions of the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) are in force. Procurements begun on or after this date must be carried out under PA 2023 (where applicable), whereas those begun under the previous legislation (the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, SI 2015/102, the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016, SI 2016/274, the Concession Contracts Regulations 2016, SI 2016/273, and the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011, SI 2011/1848) must continue to be procured and managed under that legislation. This practical guidance focuses on public procurement under PA 2023. For practical guidance on below-threshold contracts under the previous legislation, see Practice Note: Considerations when authorities procure contracts that are not subject to the full procurement regime—pre-PA 2023 [Archived]. The below-threshold public procurement regime Generally, the below-threshold public procurement regime allows contracting authorities greater flexibility in designing a suitable procurement exercise. The provisions under PA 2023, Pt 6 set out the rules governing the procurement

Banking & Finance analysis: This News Analysis provides a summary of the cases we have alerted in Banking & Finance for March 2025.

This week's edition of Construction weekly highlights includes a decision in which the TCC considered whether parties had entered into a binding settlement agreement (Baltimore v Ballymore), publication of draft regulations relating to the Responsible Actors Scheme, a case in which the TCC refused to allow a claimant an extension of time to serve its claim form (Lloyds Developments v Accor SA), an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) 2025 preliminary report on dispute resolution statistics, minutes of the Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC) meeting of 5 December 2025, and an analysis of forthcoming changes to the process for appealing planning decisions, and the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS)’s report on construction output for December 2025.

Arbitration analysis: On 2 October 2017, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld a decision refusing to recognise and enforce an SCC arbitration award issued in favour of Italian manufacturer, SPIG, against the indirectly state-owned Russian company, Promkontroller. Mariya Lazarova of the CIS Arbitration Forum considers the background to the decision and the practical implications.

This Resource Note outlines the main provisions of Rule 38 of The City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (Code), which relates to dealings by connected exempt principal traders. It highlights relevant materials, commentary and guidance from the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers (Panel), as well as Lexis+® UK analysis and resources, to give practical guidance on the interpretation and application of Rule 38. Materials covered in this Resource Note include: • Practice Statements issued by the Panel Executive (the body that carries out the day-to-day work of takeover supervision and regulation) (Executive) to provide informal guidance as to how the Executive normally interprets and applies the Code • Panel Statements published by the Panel (P/S) and Panel Instruments • Public Consultation Papers (PCP) and Response Statements (RS) published by the Code Committee • Annual Reports published by the Panel containing discussion of general issues (Annual Reports) • relevant Lexis+® UK resources Rule 38—Setting the scene Takeover Code—Rule 38—Dealings by connected exempt principal traders Code and Lexis+® UK resources What it covers Rule

This Practice Note looks at provisions in the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR 1998), SI 1998/1833 relating to the right to statutory paid holiday or annual leave for irregular hours workers and part-year workers for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. The purpose of these amendments to WTR 1998 was to deal with the issue raised by Brazel, in which the Supreme Court held that a part-year worker, a visiting music teacher paid on an hourly rate with no guaranteed minimum hours of work and no normal hours of work, who was paid for hours worked that month and holiday pay at the rate of 12.07%, was entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday that was not to be pro-rated to that of a full-time worker. Where a worker is an irregular hours worker or part-year worker in a leave year beginning on or after 1 April 2024, the right to paid holiday is governed by WTR 1998, SI 1998/1833, regs 15B–15F, rather than WTR 1998, SI 1998/1833,

This Checklist provides an overview of jurisdiction in Scotland in terms of considering whether the dispute should be dealt with in Scotland. For guidance on: • which specific court an action should be raised in, see Practice Note: Starting a civil claim in Scotland and Civil court structure in Scotland • other aspects of Scottish civil litigation, see: Scottish DR: courts and civil procedure—overview, Scottish DR: prescription and limitation—overview, Scottish DR: starting a claim—overview, Scottish DR: case management and evidence—overview, Scottish DR: expenses and funding—overview, Scottish DR: civil appeals and judicial review—overview, Scottish DR: claims and remedies—overview, Scottish DR: enforcement—overview, and Scottish DR: settlement and ADR—overview which, in turn, link through to detailed guidance on specific aspects of dispute resolution in Scotland • the position in England and Wales, see Practice Note: Jurisdiction—a guide for dispute resolution practitioners which, as well as giving an overview of this topic, links through to more detailed guidance on various aspects of jurisdiction This Checklist should be read in conjunction with Practice Note: Jurisdiction

This Practice Note provides an overview of Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993, also known as the EU Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Directive (EU UTCCD). It provides details on the background, scope, enforcement, and on recent developments of the EU UTCCD. It explains the general prohibition of unfair terms, the ‘fairness test’, the grey list of unfair terms set out in the directive, and the consequences of a term being considered unfair. It also describes the transparency requirements laid down in the EU UTCCD. For more information on other key EU legislation protecting EU consumers, see Practice Note: Key EU consumer legislation—summary. For more information on EU case law related to consumer protection, see Practice Notes: EU consumer protection cases tracker [Archived] and EU commercial law—key developments tracker for cases decided before and after 2025 respectively. Introduction to the EU UTCCD Background Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts, also known as the EU UTCCD, protects European consumers from unfair terms and conditions which might

This AgrEement is made on [date] Parties 1 [insert name of supplier], a company incorporated in [England and Wales] under number [insert registered number] whose registered office is at [insert address] (Supplier); and 2 [insert name of customer], a company incorporated in [England and Wales] under number [insert registered number] whose registered office is at [insert address] (Customer), (each of the Supplier and the Customer being a party and together the Supplier and the Customer are the parties). Background (A) The Customer wishes to procure software[, hardware], software configuration and development services, installation services and other related services. (B) The Customer has agreed to procure the Services from the Supplier and the Supplier has agreed to provide the Services to the Customer on the terms and conditions of this Agreement. The parties agree as follows: 1 Definitions and Interpretation 1.1 In this Agreement the following terms have the following meanings: Acceptance • means that: (a) the Customer confirms in writing that the Software has passed or is deemed to have passed the relevant Software Acceptance Tests; and/or (b) the Supplier confirms in writing that the Supplied Hardware has passed or is deemed to have passed