Macfarlanes and Burness Paull advised Dobbies Garden Centres, the UK’s largest operator of garden centres, on its restructuring plan (RP) under Part 26A of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006), which was approved by Lord Braid in the Court of Session in Scotland on 9 December 2024. A RP is a procedure pursuant to which a company in financial difficulty can make a compromise or arrangement with its creditors to eliminate, reduce, prevent, or mitigate the effect of its financial difficulties. Such compromises and arrangements can take a variety of forms, including amendments and extensions of debt, debt for equity swaps and amendments to the terms of, and compromise of rent payable under, leases and other property-related liabilities. The RP process was introduced during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 to provide a new restructuring tool in the UK. While there is a great deal of similarity between the regime for RPs and

AI in business In 2023, the world changed again. Much like coronavirus (COVID-19), the use of generative AI tools (GenAI) spread like a pandemic. Eager to achieve the efficiencies promised, people and organisations embraced these exciting new tools. With the mass adoption of such general-purpose technology, there is a danger people and businesses are being carried along with the wave without fully appreciating how GenAI works and what problems arise as a result. Instead, they rely on the tool to do the ‘thinking’ for them. GenAI tools do not ‘think’ in the traditional sense. The underpinning program of the tool ‘simply’ accesses the vast amount of data which it has been ‘fed’, identifies appropriate patterns within that data to produce a response which is statistically most relevant to the question asked. The main issue with using GenAI tools is not knowing where the data being accessed has come from. The subsidiary issue is: have

The legislation surrounding director disqualification applications under section 6 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 (CDDA 1986) can be found under: • CDDA 1986, s 6 • the Insolvent Companies (Disqualification of Unfit Directors) Proceedings Rules 1987, SI 1987/2023 (Disqualification Rules 1987) • these are supplemented by the Practice Direction: Directors Disqualification Proceedings (PDDDP), which was last updated in January 2017 Note also that directors of dissolved companies that have not been through an insolvency process can also be disqualified as a result of amendments to CDDA 1986, s 6 by the Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Act 2021, though such disqualifications fall outside the scope of this Practice Note. The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) also apply to director disqualification proceedings, though to the extent that they are inconsistent with the Disqualification Rules 1987, the Disqualification Rules 1987 will take precedence. The claim is commenced under Part 8 of the CPR. For information on when proceedings under

In recent months, the global demand for construction products has exceeded supply, causing a shortage of materials that has put pressure on the UK construction sector. The materials affected include timber, steel, cement, paints, and electrical components. Several factors have contributed to this imbalance of supply and demand, including the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and the effects of Brexit. Under most forms of construction contract (including those in the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) and NEC suites), the Contractor is responsible for providing the goods and materials needed to complete the works. Many Contractors will therefore wish to confirm whether they are entitled to: • additional time to complete, to allow for delays caused by material shortages (eg where materials are unavailable or subject to unusually long lead or delivery times), and/or • recover their delay-related costs In this answer, we have considered the position under the JCT Standard Building Contract (SBC) 2016

ARCHIVED: This content was published in 2020 and is not maintained. The Market Standards trend report provides in-depth analysis of the 12 firm offers and ten possible offers made for Main Market and AIM companies subject to the Takeover Code in H1 2020. It includes insight into public M&A trends and what we might expect to see in H2 2020 and beyond. What does the Market Standards trend report cover? Topics covered include: • deal value and volume • private equity deal activity • UK and foreign bidder activity • industry focus • deal structures • post-offer statements of intention • shareholder activism • coronavirus (COVID-19) issues and impact • legal and regulatory developments What are the highlights from the report? The economic uncertainty

Following on from the package of temporary measures concerning certain consumer credit products that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) put in place on 9 April 2020, on 24 April 2020 the (FCA) confirmed a further package of targeted temporary measures to help people with some of additional consumer credit and consumer hire products. What temporary measures have been introduced that are common to motor finance and to rent-to-own, buy-now pay-later and pawnbroking agreements? The measures put in place are similar to those that where put in place for credit cards/retail revolving credit and personal loans on 9 April and include: • firms must put in place three month payment deferrals (on request) if a customer has coronavirus (COVID-19) related payment issues (but firms can offer longer periods) and

CPR PD 51Z has been introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic in relation to possession proceedings, and is effective from 27 March 2020, automatically ceasing to have effect on 30 October 2020. It provides that all proceedings for possession brought under CPR 55 and all proceedings seeking to enforce an order for possession are stayed for a period of 90 days. In effect therefore extant possession claims and enforcement proceedings are automatically stayed. Additionally, by separate provision, from 26 March 2020 until 30 September 2020 (which may be extended) landlords must give three months’ notice to tenants if they intend to seek possession. There is nothing in the Practice Direction that prevents a

This Q&A assumes that the legal costs in question are those of preparing the statutory demand, whether or not this includes the costs of advising the creditor on the service of a statutory demand and whether this is an appropriate step for recovery of the claim. It also assumes that the creditor’s demand is worth serving in light of the temporary measures currently in force to protect debtor companies on account of coronavirus (COVID-19), assuming the debtor is a company and not an individual (this response proceeds on the basis of that assumption). See section 10 of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020 (CIGA 2020) and CIGA 2020, Sch 10, noting the definitions of ‘relevant period’ in CIGA

Background and underlying legal authority Sponsored workers are prohibited under the Immigration Rules from changing their sponsor or the duties and responsibilities or remuneration of their current job under their existing permission as a Skilled Worker, or under the Global Business Mobility (including predecessor Intra-Company routes) or Scale-up routes, unless certain circumstances apply. In each case, this prohibition derives from two places in the Immigration Rules: • it is a condition of permission for applicants granted entry clearance or permission to stay in these routes that work is permitted only in the job for which the applicant is being sponsored, other than: ◦ supplementary employment (where permitted), and ◦ time spent working out a contractual notice period where the applicant was lawfully working in that job in the UK on the date of application (where permitted), and • their permission can be cancelled under the Immigration Rules, Part Suitability, para SUI 37.1 in various specified circumstances ‘where they have changed jobs or they receive a lower

This week's edition of Insurance weekly highlights includes: SMEs fight Liberty Mutual on discovery wording and COVID-19; UK cyber-insurance payouts soar amid rising digital threats; Amlin dodges US$47m award over ‘pay first’ clause in ship row; BoE vows to make captive insurance regime competitive; FCA faces balancing act in response to super complaint; plus key cases and dates for your diary.

This Practice Note on frustration provides a practical guide when considering whether an unforeseen event may be considered to have frustrated an agreement. It must be read in conjunction with Practice Note: Discharge by frustration. Frustration is a common law doctrine in English law. It brings a contract to an immediate end where an unforeseen supervening frustrating event frustrates the contract rendering performance of it impossible, illegal or radically different from that which had been agreed. Where it applies, all future obligations under the agreement fall away. Sums paid prior to the supervening event and discharge are recoverable but any sums yet to be paid are no longer payable, subject to the court’s discretion (under the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943 (LR(FC)A 1943)) to allow the recovery of prior incurred expenses. Frustration is particularly difficult to successfully establish. It introduces an element of uncertainty into contractual relations which the courts are not favourable to and is therefore subject to narrow confines (The Super Servant Two). For a summary in tabular form

This week's edition of Insurance & Reinsurance weekly highlights includes: HDI reaches settlement on planes stranded in Russia; AerCap says insurers are on the hook for stranded planes; AerCap says sanctions don’t excuse insurers for lost jets; Steakhouse settles with QIC Europe over COVID-19 payout; NFU Mutual denies liability in £10m COVID-19 loss dispute; Insurers challenged over furlough cuts on COVID-19 claims; the cases of Wyllie and others v Joseph and others and Birley & Anor v Heritage Independent Living Ltd; Hotel group Brittania settles with Aviva over £6.2m payout; FCA sends portfolio letter to wholesale brokers; IAIS publishes roadmap 2025–2026; cases and decisions; key dates for your diary; and other news highlights reported over the past week.