The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published an update on its private intermittent securities and capital exchange system (PISCES) sandbox framework following proposals put forward in consultation paper CP24/29: Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System: Sandbox Arrangements. This update provides early insights into the feedback received and its potential impact on the final rules, pending the FCA Board’s approval. The FCA plans to propose technical changes to better align PISCES with private market practices, including clarifications on core disclosures related to financial information, employee share schemes, directors’ transactions, and major shareholders. The update also addresses operator oversight, the application of MAR 5, and the removal of certain disclosure requirements. The final rules are anticipated to be published in June 2025, with the PISCES sandbox opening for applications shortly thereafter. Pre-application support is available for prospective operators to receive preliminary feedback on their proposed operating models and draft rulebooks.

Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) is a five-year financial market infrastructure regulatory sandbox that facilitates intermittent secondary trading in private company shares. The PISCES regime, created under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System Sandbox) Regulations 2025 SI 2025/583 (PISCES Regulations 2025), is designed to address the ‘liquidity gap’ between purely private capital markets and the UK's public capital markets such as AIM and the main market for listed securities of the London Stock Exchange (Main Market). The PISCES regime is administered by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which published its final rules for the PISCES sandbox arrangements in the PISCES Sourcebook (PS) in June 2025 as well as making consequential amendments to the FCA Handbook (see FCA Policy Statement PS25/6: Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System: Sandbox Arrangements, June 2025). This Practice Note provides an overview of the PISCES regime, including details of the regulatory framework

HM Treasury has announced that it will launch the private intermittent securities and capital exchange system sandbox (PISCES) to support emerging companies and strengthen the UK’s capital markets. The new platform is planned to provide a controlled environment in which private companies can trade shares during designated periods, offering them a structured way to access capital and progress toward potential public listings. The framework is set out in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System Sandbox) Regulations 2025. These Regulations were made on 14 May 2025, laid before Parliament on 15 May 2025, and are scheduled to come into force on 5 June 2025. They define what constitutes PISCES, specify the conditions under which shares may be traded during intermittent periods, and establish strict eligibility criteria for operators and market participants.

Public Information Zone: the area around a nuclear facility for which an operator required to ensure the provision of specified prior information to the public without them having to ask for it.

CASE HUB NOTE—appeal lodged before the General Court in Case T- 585/20 Polwax v Commission ARCHIVED—this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the decision of 14 July 2020; it is no longer maintained. See further, timeline, commentary and related cases. Case facts Outline European Commission merger investigation into the proposed acquisition by PKN Orlen of Grupa Lotos (Case M.9014). The transaction principally involved overlaps in the refining and marketing of fuels (including retail) and related products in Poland. Latest developments On 14 July 2020, the Commission cleared the transaction subject to commitments.To address the Commission’s concerns, PKN Orlen offered seven commitments. These included a mixture of divestments and other commitments such as building a new jet-fuel terminal near Szcescein and releasing most of the capacity booked by Grupa Lotos at independent storage depots. Parties PKN Orlen (PKN): PKN is a Polish integrated oil and gas company. It owns one of the two refineries existing in Poland as well as refineries in Lithuania and in Czechia. PKN is active on the wholesale

The Property Litigation Association (PLA) has published a blog detailing the conclusion of the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) Unopposed Lease Renewal Pilot Scheme. Under the Scheme, unopposed Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 lease renewal claims issued at Central London County Court were automatically transferred to the FTT.

The Property Litigation Association (PLA) has reported on the Law Commission's current property law reform projects under its 14th Programme. Key developments include a second consultation on Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954), scheduled for spring 2026, which will focus on a 'contracting out' model for business tenancies. Additionally, a consultation on housing estates management is expected later in 2026 and could potentially extend Right to Manage provisions. The programme also encompasses reviews of agricultural tenancy legislation, commercial leasehold laws and ownerless land provisions.

The Property Litigation Association (PLA) has submitted its response to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee in relation to the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, focusing on the practical operation and drafting of the legislation rather than its underlying policy objectives. The PLA acknowledged that banning the sale of new leasehold flats would ultimately end residential leasehold, but cautioned that leasehold remains a useful structure, particularly for complex and mixed-use developments, and that flexibility at headlease level should be preserved to maintain investor confidence. It considered that the Bill makes substantial progress towards a workable commonhold regime by introducing sections for mixed-use schemes, strengthening governance, mandating reserve funds, streamlining tribunal-based dispute resolution, and reducing the conversion threshold to 50%. However, it raised concerns about the treatment of non-consenting leaseholders, the feasibility of aligning their leases with the Commonhold Community Statement, and the practical challenges of conversion and operation in complex developments, including the assumption of significant building safety obligations by commonhold associations.

The Property Lawyers Action Group (PLAG) has written an open letter to the Chair of the National Trading Standards (NTS), raising concerns about the new Material Information guidance (MI) outlined by the NTS and how that will affect the legal property sector. PLAG argues that MI wrongly imposes obligations on property sellers beyond the scope of consumer protection laws, potentially burdening them with due diligence responsibilities. They criticise NTS for neglecting prevalent issues like undisclosed referral fees and conditional selling. In the letter, PLAG urges the NTS to refocus their efforts on combatting exploitative practices instead, and asks that they revoke the current version of the MI. NTS have acknowledged receipt of the letter and pledged to send a comprehensive response to PLAG’s concerns.

The Property Lawyers Action Group (PLAG) has written an open letter to the Law Society asking it to withdraw the latest version of its TA6 property information form that supports the National Trading Standards material information guidance. The updated form includes information that should be disclosed on property listings, according to the National Trading Standards (NTS) Estate and Letting Agency Team. PLAG previously wrote to the Chair of NTS raising concerns about the new material information guidance outlined by the NTS arguing that it wrongly imposes obligations on property sellers beyond the scope of consumer protection laws, potentially burdening them with due diligence responsibilities. In the letter PLAG said: ‘The whole focus of CQS [the Society's accredited conveyancing quality scheme] for many years has been to discourage the practice of raising enquiries about every conceivable matter that could possibly affect a transaction, in favour of fewer targeted, relevant enquiries. In the interests of streamlining conveyancing and reducing the time and cost of transferring title to land CQS has strongly discouraged solicitors from raising numerous enquiries that may not be relevant. The new TA6 and TA7 forms flies in the face of this policy, with no tangible benefits, only increased cost and complexity.’

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The Public Law Project (PLP) has launched a questionnaire for legal practitioners regarding their experiences and opinions on the legal framework concerning costs in judicial review proceedings. The questionnaire targets practitioners representing claimants, third-party interveners, and defendants, with results intended to feed into PLP's research report on practitioners' experiences of costs in judicial review and recommendations for reform. The questionnaire covers rules governing liability for and recovery of legal costs including solicitors' fees and disbursements such as barristers' fees, expert fees, and court fees, but excludes rules governing access to or eligibility for legal aid. The research is being undertaken by Lee Marsons, Senior Research Fellow at PLP, with responses to be stored on PLP's password-protected intranet and accessed only by the project team. Most questions are non-mandatory to help respondents focus on issues where they have most experience, and individuals will not be identified without express written permission.