What is the Dormant Assets Scheme? The Dormant Assets Scheme (the Scheme) is a scheme led by industry and backed by the government with the aim of reuniting people with their financial assets. Where this is not possible, this money goes towards social and environmental initiatives across the UK. Significantly, owners are able to reclaim what they would have been owed had their asset not been transferred into the Scheme at any time. The legislative framework for the Scheme is set out in the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008 and the Dormant Assets Act 2022 (DAA 2022). For general information on the Scheme, see Practice Note: Regulated activities relating to dormant assets. Expansion of the Scheme to cover personal pensions The Scheme initially targeted bank and building society account balances. Following the establishment of an Independent Commission on Dormant Assets (the Commission) in December 2015, the Commission recommended that the government build on the success of the original Scheme by including a wider range of dormant

Where a company enters compulsory or provisional liquidation or an individual is made bankrupt, the Official Receiver acts as a permanent or ‘interim’ office-holder of the insolvent estate. Accordingly, certain fees, levies and charges are payable to the Insolvency Service, historically as a payment to HM Treasury, now to seek to defray the Official Receiver’s costs in administering the estate. Historically, regardless of whether the Official Receiver remained in office (or, more likely, the case was transferred to an insolvency practitioner to manage), the estate was obliged to pay Secretary of State (SOS) fees to the Insolvency Service on all realisations. SOS fees are paid from certain insolvent estates to meet the ongoing costs of the Official Receivers’ operations, and have, over the years, been periodically restructured, most recently in July 2016. From 1

CPR 54.5 reduces the usual three-months’ time limit to six weeks for 'planning acts' claims and provides that 'the planning acts' has the same meaning as in section 336 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990) which includes TCPA 1990 itself. This means that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening decision in relation to development under Part III of the 1990 Act will be caught by

This Q&A does not consider any occupier’s liability or health and safety obligations which may be imposed on a hotel operator. Once highways are adopted under section 38 of the Highways Act 1980 (HiA 1980), they are maintainable at public expense by the highways authority and any neighbouring landowner or occupier, or developer of the highway, will

Trustees of a charity are subject to the same rules and duties as trustees of private trusts, save that they have an added supervisor in the form of the Charity Commission. Subject to this, trustees have duties and powers. The difference is that a performance of a duty is obligatory and powers are to a greater or lesser degree discretionary in nature. In practical terms the trustees’ duties towards a beneficiary, in this case the charity, are fiduciary. The guiding duty for trustees is to exercise reasonable care. This common law position was summed up in Re Whiteley: ‘The duty requires a trustee when managing the affairs of a trust, to take “all those precautions which an ordinary prudent man of business would take in managing similar affairs of his own” but having particular regard to the fact that “the duty of a trustee is not to

The previous incarnation of Enterprise Zones (EZs) were announced by Geoffrey Howe in his 1980 Budget. They were largely similar to EZs established in the 2011 Budget. Essentially, EZs benefitted from a greatly simplified planning regime; developments that conformed with the published scheme for each zone did not require planning permission. Those controls remaining in place would be abandoned more speedily. See: House of Commons Briefing Paper on EZs for more background

The status of the company at the timing of the giving of financial assistance is crucial. A public company may re-register as a private company to give financial assistance for the acquisition of its shares. If it re-registers after the acquisition has taken place, it can provide post-acquisition financial assistance. However, care should be taken if a private company re-registers as a public company after an acquisition has taken place. In this case, any post-acquisition financial assistance would be prohibited (subject to the availability of any exceptions). See Practice Note: Financial assistance—when does the prohibition apply? It will be necessary to consider the timing of the giving of the financial assistance. If Company X re-registers as a private company, and subsequently sets up Newco and provides security, the financial assistance provisions should not apply. Tax considerations Shareholders who dispose of shares in a reorganisation are potentially

Late registration of the charge If a company or an LLP creates a charge to which the Companies Act 2006, s 859A (CA 2006) applies and the documents required by CA 2006, s 859A are not delivered to Companies House by the chargor or another person interested in the charge before the end of the relevant period allowed for delivery, then the charge is void (so far as any security on the chargor's property or undertaking is conferred by it) against: • a liquidator of the chargor • an administrator of the chargor, or • a creditor of the chargor If a charge is not registered in time, the chargor or any person interested in the charge (eg the chargee) can apply to the court to extend the period allowed for registration of the charge. There are various factors the

It is assumed that: • the lease was not a building lease, ie one under which the tenant was under an obligation to erect the building in question; • there is no tenant covenant to reinstate the building Business Lease If the building as erected is used by the tenant for the purposes of a business carried on by them, it will form part of the tenant’s demise and the lease will be one to which, at its expiry even if not when initially granted, the provisions of Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 (LTA 1954) will apply. Assuming in that case that the landlord serves a LTA 1954, s 25 notice indicating that they have no objection to a new lease or any objection they have is defeated or the tenant serves a

The disposition, to be affected by section 127 of the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986), might be made by the company or a third party such as a director or agent on behalf of the company, or made directly or indirectly, but any bona fide purchaser for value without notice of the winding-up

Schools and the coronavirus In accordance with its powers under section 37 and Part 1 of Schedule 16 to the Coronavirus Act 2020 (CA 2020), the government announced that schools would be closed from 20 March 2020 to all pupils except for those of key workers and vulnerable children. Under CA 2020, s 38 and CA 2020, Sch 17, Pt 1, the government has powers to ‘give directions regarding the continuing provision of education, training and childcare’ and has issued various guidance papers on the topic. See Education and childcare during coronavirus. On 28 May 2020 the government announced that nursery, reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils could attend nursery or primary schools. From 15 June 2020 secondary schools can invite Year 10 and Year

Where more than one person owns the property, they will hold the legal title as joint tenants, meaning that each is entitled to the whole, subject only to the right of the other likewise to the whole. The beneficial ownership of the property can be held as tenants in common, meaning that each has a defined share, or, as in this scenario, as beneficial joint tenants. Survivorship applies to joint tenancy meaning that on the death of one co-owner, their interest is extinguished and the remaining joint tenants continue to own the whole—there is no interest that will pass under a will or the intestacy rules. See Practice Note: Establishing a beneficial interest (joint ownership). In principle, it is arguable that one joint tenant (A) (where the beneficial interest is held as joint tenants) is able to grant