Generally, this will depend on the terms of the Will. However, you should consider whether the terms of the Will give the trustees the power to exercise their power of appointment in favour of a person who has apparently ceased to be within the class of persons to whom an appointment can be made. If the trustees have the relevant power, an exercise of that power which complies with section 144 of the Inheritance

A discretionary trust would usually include wide powers for the trustees to appoint that funds or assets are held on such terms as the trustees think fit for one or more of the members of the class of beneficiaries. There may also be a specific power to transfer all or part of the trust fund to another settlement, provided that the beneficiaries of that other settlement only comprise one or more of the beneficiaries of the first settlement, but if that specific power does not appear, the

Planning involving nil rate band trusts can involve the trustees lending to a beneficiary. However, the ability of the trustees to make loans to beneficiaries will depend on the precise terms of the trust deed. This response assumes the trust in question is a discretionary trust. As to the power of trustees to lend, see

Can a trustee acquire property in Scotland? Section 8 of the Trustee Act 2000 (TrA 2000) permits a trustee (of a trust governed by the laws of England and Wales) to acquire freehold or leasehold land in the United Kingdom: • as an investment • for occupation by a beneficiary • for any other reason Freehold or leasehold land includes an estate in Scotland (TrA 2000, s 8(2)(b)(i)). Therefore, unless the trust document excludes the trustees from acquiring land in Scotland (TrA 2000, s 9) or an exclusion in TrA 2000, s 10 applies, the trustees may

This Q&A focuses on: • the property concerned forming the entire estate of the deceased • the deceased and the surviving spouse having the same domicile We have limited this answer to cover: • the transfer of the nil rate band (or part thereof) from one deceased spouse • a situation where any transferable nil rate band is used by the personal representatives of the surviving spouse/trustees of an aggregated life interest trust and is not available to be claimed by others The first step is to determine whether any of the nil rate band has been used. This will allow you to calculate how much of the nil rate band is unused. The nil rate band will remain unused if the entire estate is either exempt or is 100% relievable—for example, because it qualifies for Business Property Relief. The

Generative artificial intelligence (AI)—in particular those AI tools that create unique images and text—presents powerful and exciting opportunities for creators, providing businesses and individuals with the ability to almost instantly create new logos, taglines and businesses names. But the products of generative AI might well infringe the rights of existing brand owners, landing the user of the new AI image or text in hot water. As the output of AI or a large language model is based on its training and data inputted into it, it can easily produce infringing material as its output as this is based on existing material. Indeed, at the time of writing, Getty Images is suing Stability AI in the High Court, and one of the grounds is trade mark infringement as some of the allegedly infringing images contain the Getty Images watermark. For more information about this case, see News Analysis: Getty Images taking

This query requires consideration of the following: • whether the waiver of an interest-free loan is capable of constituting a transfer of value for the purposes of section 3(1) of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984 (IHTA 1984) • whether a debt can constitute cash, such that the value transferred by the waiver of the loan can be said to be ‘attributable to cash’ for the purposes of the Inheritance Tax (Delivery of Accounts) (Excepted Transfers and Excepted Terminations) Regulations 2008, SI 2008/605 (the regulations). With regard to the first point, IHTA 1984, s 3(1) provides

Civil partners Civil partners are largely treated the same in law as spouses, but there are some small differences, most notably regarding some pension schemes, and the basis on which a civil partnership may be dissolved (adultery does not apply). The courts have been clear that a civil partnership is not a marriage—see Wilkinson v Kitzinger (No 2). A civil partnership may (since the coming into force of the Marriage

We can find no direct authority confirming that the write-off of a loan made by one company to another, where both the lending company and the borrowing company have the same majority shareholder, is a distribution under Part 23 of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006) or that it is not. There is a possibility that a court could view such a transaction as a distribution for these purposes and some careful analysis of the law and the facts will be necessary. However, Stakefield (Midlands) and others v Doffman and another provides some useful guidance. The court found that the waiver by a company (S Ltd) of certain loans owed to it by other companies associated with it (by virtue of two of the shareholder/directors of S Ltd also being directors of those associated companies) was, on the facts, an (unlawful) distribution

Part A of the Schedule to Precedent: Data protection privacy notice (recruitment) refers to ‘reasons of substantial public interest’ as the reason for collecting: • ‘your racial or ethnic origin, sex and sexual orientation, religious or similar beliefs’ (which will be special categories of personal data under Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) • ‘information regarding your criminal record’ (personal data regarding criminal convictions and offences under Article 10) ‘Substantial public interest’ is also referred to in Part B as the reason for collecting ‘information regarding your criminal record, in criminal records certificates and enhanced criminal records certificates’. For further information: • on special categories of personal data, see Practice Note: The UK GDPR and DPA 2018: key data protection issues for employment lawyers—Special category data • on personal data regarding criminal convictions and offences, see Practice Note: The

In summary, the rules are silent on the question. But there is no reason in principle why, in an appropriate case, there should not be a single Part 36 offer to multiple claimants. In general, there are two reasons why a claim might have multiple claimants: • the claimants might each have their own claim alleging independent causes of action against the defendant arising out of a single set or related sets of facts (such as passengers in a motor vehicle or purchasers of defective products), and • the claimants might have identical and congruent standing to bring a single claim (such as partners

For detailed guidance on what is a service provision change under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE 2006), SI 2006/246, see Practice Note: TUPE—service provision changes. Under TUPE 2006, SI 2006/246, reg 3(1)(b), a service provision change (SPC) may involve any one of three possibilities: • outsourcing: where activities cease to be carried out by a person ('a client') on its own behalf and are carried out instead by another person on the client's behalf ('a contractor') • change of contractor: where activities cease to be carried out by a contractor on a client's behalf (whether or not those activities had previously been carried out by the client on its own behalf) and are carried out instead by another person ('a subsequent contractor') on the client's behalf, or • insourcing: where activities cease to be carried out