Why you need to manage this risk Key business assets are the organisation’s assets which are essential to its continued function and whose loss would materially impair the organisation’s ability to carry on. Like any asset, a key asset can be tangible (such as a paperclip or a factory) or intangible (such as a patent or software). Often, your organisation’s key business assets serve to distinguish it from competitors, ie they are: • new and unique • a significant improvement on what other organisations use, or • commonly found assets but used in a different way by your organisation The key risks associated with key business assets are: • failure to identify which assets are key to the business—an analysis may reveal unexpected results • people—securing the contribution of employees with unique skills or knowledge • loss of tangible assets—how to plan for the temporary or permanent loss of assets such as properties, machinery, equipment, etc which are key to your organisation’s success • protection of intangible assets—the protection and defence of assets

An altered process for preparing trial witness statements Since April 2021, practitioners running claims in the Business and Property Division have been required to comply with CPR PD 57AC when preparing trial witness statements. This practice direction followed a report of the judge-led Witness Evidence Working Group, and it introduced an altered process for preparing such statements. The main aim of the altered process was to prevent witness statements being written for witnesses by lawyers using the words a lawyer considered would best present the witness’ evidence for the benefit of the client’s case. If witness statements represented the witness’s own account of events they had witnessed more closely, judicial thinking was that the statement would contain more reliable evidence for the court to consider at trial. Another aim was to reduce the length of statements. They were often diverted from being purely about a witness’ evidence towards narratives about the background to a claim and, ultimately, could become inappropriate case submissions put into the mouth of a witness. The

Technology products, solutions and services underpin the operations of just about every business, albeit that they come in many different forms. They will vary in size, complexity and value, and range from major outsourcing and managed services arrangements through to ‘as a service’ solutions offered via the cloud and on-premise software licences. However, there are certain contractual issues which regularly arise, where customers and suppliers have legitimate concerns which will need to be accommodated if agreement is to be reached. This Practice Note highlights some of those encountered most often and presents ways in which any disagreements between the parties might be resolved. Adequacy of due diligence Many kinds of technology transaction require an exchange of information from the customer to the supplier before the contract is signed so as to enable the supplier to scope out the requirement and to price for it. In some cases this may be encapsulated entirely in a request for proposal document sent out by the customer, but often there will be other information that the

This case tracker considers case law from January 2021 in relation to liability in clinical negligence. These decisions give some guidance on how the courts are handling different types of clinical negligence claims. Where available we have linked to the cases and/or analysis. This case tracker should be read in conjunction with Practice Notes on the specific type of claim such as Clinical negligence claims involving labour and delivery—injuries to the child, Delay in medical treatment and Clinical negligence surgical claims. Birth injuries Case name and details Key issues Further reading LXLP (by her mother and litigation friend, CYLP) v St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust [2026] EWHC 560 (KB)March 2026 The King's Bench Division dismissed the claimant's claim for damages arising from alleged negligence by the defendant during April / May 2016, which resulted in bilateral, four-limb cerebral palsy. The defendant admitted breach of duty in failing to prescribe Erythromycin following diagnosis of pre-term, pre-labour rupture of membranes on 25 April 2016.However, the court

This Checklist identifies key legal and compliance issues for digital commerce websites. It covers business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) website terms, privacy notices, cookies, ordering processes, consumer contracts, terms of sale, online platforms, payments, advertising, data protection, direct marketing, accessibility, cybersecurity, brand protection and cross-border trading. This Checklist does not consider matters that are generally applicable to all businesses (eg compliance with general data protection record keeping obligations, health and safety, employment law, taxation and so on). For further guidance on digital commerce, see Practice Notes: • Digital commerce—introduction • Business-to-business digital commerce—forming contracts online • Business-to-business digital commerce—compliance and regulation • Business-to-consumer digital commerce—forming contracts online • Business-to-consumer digital commerce—compliance and regulation • Digital commerce—website terms, policies and notices Website terms and information Issue Summary Further resources Terms of use (of the website) It is advisable to include terms which set out the basis on which the website is provided and may be used. Key terms often include disclaimers, key information and contact details, user responsibilities and IP rights, among others. See

Note: • this Practice Note gives specific guidance on matters proceeding in the Technology and Construction Court (TCC) under the provisions set out in CPR 60, CPR PD 60 and the TCC Guide. As these provisions are additional to the general provisions set out elsewhere in the CPR, this Practice Note should be read in conjunction with general guidance on preparing for and attending trial including that in Trial—overview which, in turn, links through to detailed guidance on specific aspects of preparing for and attending trials • shorter and flexible trials schemes—claims started on or after 1 October 2015 in the TCC may be suitable for and/or be subject to one or both of the schemes operating under CPR PD 57AB, namely the shorter trials scheme and/or the flexible trials scheme. For more information on these schemes, see Practice Notes: Business and Property Division—shorter trials scheme and Business and Property Division—flexible trials scheme • electronic working—for information on electronic working in the TCC, see Practice Note: TCC—starting a claim—High

Legal status of local authorities Superficially, those elected to run a local authority will take decisions as they see fit, according to their electoral mandate, and those employed by the authority will take decisions to implement the elected members’ plan. However, this is overly simplistic. While much has been made of the ‘general power of competence’ given to local authorities, it remains the case that members are constrained in what they can do and those executives who run them or employees who work for them are even more so. Local authorities are statutory corporations, created by Parliament as single legal entities, as described in Hazell v Hammersmith and Fulham: ‘A local authority, although democratically elected and representative of the area, is not a sovereign body and can only do such things as are expressly or impliedly authorised by Parliament.’ There are many such statutory provisions, some of which provide an overall framework but most of which charge the authority with carrying out one among many, sometimes competing,

This Practice Note covers registration of aircraft mortgages at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the context of a typical aviation finance transaction. It does not deal with all the steps that may be required to perfect security over an aircraft. For information on registering security at Companies House and the relationship between registration at Companies House and registration on the UK Register of Aircraft Mortgages, see Practice Note: Perfecting security over aircraft and registering security on the UK Register of Aircraft Mortgages. See also, Practice Note: Aviation finance and the Cape Town Convention. The CAA is charged with maintaining the United Kingdom Register of Civil Aircraft (the ‘Register’). The Register includes entries where an aircraft has been used as security for a mortgage or loan. It does not, however, include any other types of security interest, such as liens over the aircraft including those in respect of unpaid landing fees. In the UK, legislation sets out how a security interest is registered on the

This Checklist provides a comparison table of the key consumer information requirements set out in: • the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/3134 (CCR 2013) • the Provision of Services Regulations 2009, SI 2009/2999 (PSR 2009), and • the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, SI 2002/2013 (E-Commerce Regulations 2002) As demonstrated by the table below, many of the information requirements in the PSR 2009 and the E-Commerce Regulations 2002 overlap with those set out in the CCR 2013. However, the PSR 2009 and the E-Commerce Regulations 2002 also contain certain additional information requirements that must be considered by traders where this legislation applies and this Checklist is intended to assist traders with compliance in this regard. This Checklist focuses on the information requirements set out in the above UK legislation. For detailed information on: • the CCR 2013, see Practice Note: Distance, doorstep and on-premises sales and also: Information requirements under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013—checklist • the PSR 2009, see Practice Note: The Provision of Services

This Practice Note sets out a brief description of the key consumer legislation that businesses dealing with consumers should be aware of. It considers the core legislation relevant when trading or contracting with consumers in the UK and other key legislation relevant to the business-to-consumer relationship in the context of advertising, data protection, e-commerce, product liability and safety, the provision of services, and civil enforcement and consumer disputes, as well as other legislation which benefits consumers. This Practice Note does not cover sector specific (eg travel and transport, insurance, consumer credit, gambling, charities), product specific (eg for alcohol, tobacco, animal/food/textile products, cars, medicines, fireworks), product or packaging marking or labelling, underage sales or environmental legislation. This Practice Note does not consider EU legislation. For more information, see Practice Note: Key EU consumer legislation—summary. Core legislation The table below sets out the core consumer protection legislation to consider when trading or contracting with consumers. It is supplemented by various other key legislation set out in the remaining tables in this Practice Note. Forthcoming change: On 24 May 2024, the

This Practice Note provides contact details for the key government offices and other organisations involved in the administration of immigration control in the UK. It also gives details of relevant sector bodies. The Home Office Home Office organisational structure Information on the organisational structure of the Home Office is publicly available on the DATA.GOV.UK website. The published information is structured as an interactive organogram (organisational structure chart) and includes: • position titles • names of senior-level position holders • salary ranges for all positions • reporting lines for all positions General enquiries for applications made in the UK There is an online contact tool for various issues, including contact details for specific listed matters such as the webchat service for getting assistance with accessing an eVisa. For general enquiries for applications made in the UK: Tel: 0300 790 6268, select option 2, 09:00–16:45, Monday–Thursday; 09:00–16:30, Friday (excluding bank holidays). Immigration desks at UK ports/UK Border Force Carrier Support Hub The Home Office guidance document ‘UK visa requirements: list for carriers’ used to

IP analysis: Giles Parsons, partner and Phoebe Price, trainee solicitor of Browne Jacobson analyse Thomson Reuters v ROSS Intelligence, Case No 1:20-cv-00613-SB and its implications on UK lawyers.