Disclosure: who must give disclosure and what is the disclosure obligation?

This practice note explains who must give disclosure, examines the nature of the disclosure obligation (including the duty to conduct a reasonable search for documents), its extent and duration, and briefly addresses the position in relation to non-parties. It focuses on claims that are subject to the disclosure regime under Civil Procedure Rule (CPR) 31, Practice Direction (PD) 31A and PD 31B.

Disclosure in the B&PCs: A mandatory (save for limited exceptions) Disclosure Pilot Scheme (under what was PD 51U) operated in the Business and Property Courts from 1 January 2019 until 1 October 2022. PD 57AD ("Disclosure in the Business and Property Courts") took effect on 1 October 2022, replacing PD 51U, and implementing, on a permanent basis, the procedures that applied under the Disclosure Pilot Scheme. For details of our materials considering the approach to disclosure under PD 57AD (and, previously, under PD 51U), see Disclosure in the B&PCs toolkit.

Changes to CPR 28.2 and CPR 31.5 under the Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2024 (SI 2024/106): Changes to CPR 28.2 implemented on 6 April 2024 appear to have been incorrectly applied on the justice.gov.uk website. Further, the apparently intended changes to CPR 28.2 and CPR 31.5 have led to a lack of clarity regarding the approach to disclosure. We have sought clarification from the Civil Procedure Rule Committee and will update our materials once the position has been clarified. For more details, see Legal update, Disclosure: potential confusion regarding changes to CPR 28.2 and CPR 31.5.