We refer you to Practice Note: Statutory Wills—Court of Protection applications, which explains what is a statutory Will, when it is appropriate to make one, the procedure for making a statutory Will and the effect of such a Will. As explained in

Clause 2.27.1 of the JCT Standard Building Contract 2011 (SBC) provides: 'If and whenever it becomes reasonably apparent that the progress of the Works or any Section is being or is likely to be delayed the Contractor shall forthwith give notice to the Architect/Contract Administrator of the material circumstances, including the cause or causes of the delay, and shall identify in the notice any event which in his opinion is a Relevant Event...' Lexis+® UK practical point: identical clauses are contained in the Standard Building Contract 2016 (cl 2.27.1) and the JCT Design and Build Contract 2011/2016 (cl 2.24.1), albeit that the reference to ‘Architect/Contract Administrator’ is replaced with the ‘Employer’ in the design and build contracts. There are two main issues to be considered when determining whether compliance with a notification provision such as clause 2.27.1 of the SBC has been achieved: • what is the scope of the requirement to give notice

This Q&A considers cases on the liability of a party appointed by the employer to review and approve a design developed by a contractor in a design and build contract. This role is sometimes known as an independent checker/reviewer or simply the employer’s design consultant (although this latter term could also describe a designer engaged by the employer to undertake design work in a traditional procurement situation). Design checking or design verification is not a topic which has been considered in any great depth or with any great frequency by the courts, therefore there is limited assistance to be found in the authorities. The scope of the duty owed by a professional body engaged to check or verify a design was considered peripherally by the Court of Appeal in MT Hojgaard A/S v E.ON Climate and Renewables UK Robin Rigg East Ltd. In that case the contractor

Retention is the name given to the amount of money the employer retains from interim payments as security for the future performance of the contractor's obligations and to incentivise the contractor to fulfil all of its obligations. For more information, see Practice Note: Retention of payment in construction contracts. The release of retention to the contractor varies depending on the specific terms of the contract. Commonly, one half of the retention is released at practical completion, and the remainder after rectification of any defects notified during the defects liability period has been completed. Therefore, a contractor may be entitled to claim the release of part or all of the retention where these milestones occur prior to the issue of a final certificate. Depending on the contract, the contractor may also be required to make an application

In this Q&A, the regime under Article 44 of Chapter V of the General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR), Regulation (EU) 2016/679 once incorporated into UK law post-Brexit has been focused on. Consideration has not been given to the non-GDPR regimes under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), (including the ‘applied GDPR’ regime, nor the regimes applicable to law enforcement or intelligence services processing). See Practice Note: The Data Protection Act 2018. Article 44 of the GDPR Article 44 of Chapter V of the GDPR states: ‘Any transfer of personal data which are undergoing processing or are intended for processing after transfer to a third country or to an international organisation shall take place only if, subject to the other provisions of this Regulation, the conditions laid down in this Chapter are complied with by the controller

Employment analysis: Termination payments made to employees on account of disability are completely free of tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs). They are not subject to the £30,000 cap that normally applies to tax-free termination payments. HMRC's restrictive interpretation of what qualifies as a disability payment has been successfully challenged in a recent case. Nicholas Stretch, partner, Desiree De Lima, associate and Rory Marrow, trainee at Stephenson Harwood examine the case and the key takeaways from the decision.

Property Disputes analysis: Sir Anthony Mann gave helpful guidance on the proper application of the intention to redevelop test under section 30(1)(f) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954) in a decision which is significant for property practitioners dealing with commercial lease renewals. In particular, the High Court concluded that the ‘realistic prospect’ test applies to the likelihood of funding re-development in the same way as it does to planning requirements. The court also clarified the circumstances in which landlords might be able to rely on their ownership of other properties to help establish the redevelopment ground. As such, the decision is likely to guide the approach taken to case preparation (predominantly from a landlord’s perspective) where a landlord is seeking to demonstrate that the redevelopment ground has been satisfied. Written by Priya Gopal, barrister at Gatehouse Chambers.

Employment analysis: Worker voice represents more than traditional grievance channels or suggestion boxes. It encompasses the various mechanisms through which employees can influence organisational decisions, from strategic planning to operational improvements. While the concept is not new, its implementation has evolved significantly, shaped by changing workforce expectations, technological capabilities, and governance requirements. Written by Will Winch, partner & knowledge lawyer at Mishcon de Reya.

We are not aware of any authority which suggests that costs incurred during a stay of proceedings cannot be recovered. Courts power to stay all or part of proceedings The court can stay all or part of the proceedings under its own general powers of management under CPR 3.1(2)(f). According to CPR 1.1(2)(b) the overriding objective includes dealing with a case justly and at proportionate cost includes, so far as is practicable, saving expense. See Practice Note: Case management of civil claims under the CPR. A party to proceedings may apply for a stay of proceedings—see Practice Note: Stay of civil proceedings—when can you apply to stay a claim? for the various reasons a stay may be made. In the case of a stay of proceedings, whether conditional or absolute, the claim still subsists, it is still 'pending'—see Empson v Smith and MacCabe v Joynt 2 IR 115 (not reported by LexisNexis®). See also Thomas v Exeter Flying Post Co (stay by

This Q&A refers to the situation where there is a group litigation order (GLO) in place and the court has exercised its direction for a claim to proceed as a test claim and that the claim has been settled. General provisions CPR Part 8 is generally used for resolving claims that do not involve a substantial dispute of fact. A number of provisions within CPR 7 and CPR PD 7A apply to all claims, including Part 8 claims and should, therefore, be applied where appropriate (CPR PD 8A, para 4.1). Where a claimant uses the CPR Part 8 procedure, the claim form (Form N208) should be used (CPR PD 7A, para 3.1).

Commercial analysis: Ofcom recently carried out a study to see if consumers were reading terms and conditions and if not, what organisations could do to improve engagement. This followed another study it carried out last year to review how readable the user policies of video sharing platforms were. In this article, Katie Moon, legal designer and associate, and Helen Hart, senior practice development lawyer, both at Lewis Silkin, look at the key learnings from the two studies and what can be done to improve engagement with terms and conditions.

This Practice Note analyses the potential risks related to exchanges of commercially confidential information in the UK oil and gas (O&G) sector within the context of the NSTA Strategy (the latest version of which was published under the title ‘OGA Strategy’ in 2021, as explained below). The Practice Note has particular regard to information as to proposed future investments and future production in order to produce an Area Plan, and it further identifies how such exchanges may be conducted in a manner that is consistent with UK and EU competition laws. Why is competition law relevant to Area Plans under the NSTA Strategy? The exchange of commercially confidential information between competitors is one type of arrangement which has been identified by competition authorities as falling within a Chapter I prohibition of the Competition Act 1998 (and Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)) (see Practice Notes: Information exchange under UK competition law and Information exchange under EU competition law and Article 101(1) TFEU—the prohibition on restrictive