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The three linked appeals, Scottish Widows plc v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (Scotland), Scottish Widows plc No.2 v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (Scotland) and Scottish Widows plc (Respondent) v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, will be heard in the Supreme Court this week by Lord Hope, Lord Walker, Lady Hale, Lord Neuberger and Lord Clarke. This four-day hearing commencing on Monday 16 May 2011 involves the demutualisation of Scottish Widows under which it was to establish and maintain a “Long Term Fund” to fund its long-term insurance business and for there to be a memorandum account within the Long Term Fund, called the “Capital Reserve”, representing the amount of shareholder’s capital. Scottish Widows sustained trading losses in the years following demutualisation and brought into account amounts from the Capital Reserve in order to cover losses and to allow for distributions. Revenue and Customs maintains that the relevant amounts are to be brought into account as receipts for the computation of profits or losses for taxation. Section 83 Finance Act 1989 provided for certain sums to be brought into account in the computation of the profits of an insurance company in respect of its life assurance business and section 83(2)(b) provided, at the relevant time, that any increase in value of the assets of such a company’s long term business fund shall be taken into account as a receipt. Section 83(3)(a) made provision for ascertaining whether or to what extent a company has incurred a loss in respect of that business where an amount is added to an insurance company’s long term business fund as part of or in connection with a transfer of business to that company and that amount shall be taken into account as an increase in value of the assets of the fund within section 83(2)(b).

The Court will decide (1) what an “increase in value” of assets is in an insurance company’s long term business fund for the purposes of section 83(2)(b) Finance Act 1989 and whether amounts described by Scottish Widows as transfers from its capital reserve to its long term business fund in 2000, 2001 and 2002 constitute such an increase; and (2) what constitutes the addition of an amount to an insurance company’s long term business fund for the purposes of section 83(3) Finance Act 1989 and whether any such additions were made to Scottish Widows’ long term business fund in the 2000, 2001 and 2002 accounting periods. The Supreme Court case details are here, here and here.

The Supreme Court has announced that the judgments of In the matter of an application by Brigid McCaughey and another for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland), heard 2 – 3 February 2011, and R (on the application of GC) (FC) v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (Respondent) and R (on the application of C)  v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, heard 31 January – 1 February 2011, will be handed down on Wednesday 18 May 2011. Here and here are our case previews.

The following six appeals from Trinidad and Tobago will be heard by Lords Phillips, Brown, Mance, Kerr and Dyson from Tuesday 17 May 2011 – Thursday 19 May 2011 in the Privy Council:

  • Winston Gibson v Public Service Commission;
  • Ranjan Rampersad v Commissioner of Police and Police Service Commission;
  • Robert Ramsahai v Teaching Service Commission;
  • Ashford Sankar & Others v Public Service Commission;
  • Gopichand Ganga and Others v Commissioner of Police and Others; and
  • Hermia Tyson-Cuffie v Public Service Commission.

The Privy Council will also hand down the judgments of Peter Stewart v The Queen, heard 28 March 2011, and Rohan Vidal and Kevin Thompson v The Queen, heard 29 March 2011, on Wednesday 18 May 2011.

Judgments outstanding

The following Supreme Court judgments remain outstanding:

R (SK) (Zimbabwe) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, heard 10-11 Feb 2010

JP Morgan Chase Bank N.A. and another v Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) Anstalt des Oeffentlichen Rechts, heard 11 November 2010

Al Rawi and others (Respondents) v The Security Service and others (Appellants), heard 24 -27 January 2011

Home Office (Appellant) v Tariq (Respondent), heard 24 – 27 January 2011

FA (Iraq) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, heard 23 – 24 February 2011

Perpetual Trustee Company Limited v BNY Corporate Trustee Services Limited and Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc; and Belmont Park Investments PTY Limited v BNY Corporate Trustee Services Limited and Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc, heard 1 – 3 March 2011.

Lucasfilm Limited and others v Ainsworth and another, heard 7 – 9 March 2011.

R (Cart) v The Upper Tribunal; Eba v Advocate General for Scotland (Scotland); and R (MR (Pakistan)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, heard 14 – 17 March 2011.

Fraser v Her Majesty’s Advocate, heard 21 – 22 March 2011.

Bloomsbury International Limited and others v Sea Fish Industry Authority and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, heard 23 – 24 March 2011.

NML Capital Ltd v Republic of Argentina, heard 29 – 30 March 2011.

R (McDonald) v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, heard 4 – 5 April 2011.

Jivraj v Hashwani, heard 6 -7 April 2011.

R (on the application of G) v The Governors of X School, heard 11 – 12 April 2011.

Parkwood Leisure Limited v Alemo-Herron and others, heard 13 – 14 April 2011.

Kernott v Jones, heard 4 May 2011.

R v Waya, heard 5 May 2011.

Autoclenz Limited v Belcher and others, heard 11 – 12 May 2011.

The following Privy Council judgments are awaited:

Romeo Cannonier & Ors v The Queen (St Christopher & Nevis) and Romeo Cannonier v The Queen (St Christopher & Nevis), heard 13 May 2010

The Public Service Appeal Board v Omar Maraj (Trinidad & Tobago), heard 5 October 2010

Tasarruf Mevduati Sigorta Fonu v Merrill Lynch Bank and Trust Company (Cayman) Limited & Others, heard 31 January – 1 February 2011

Maxo Tido v The Queen (Bahamas), heard 7 March 2011

Nimrod Miguel v The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, heard 8 – 9 March 2011

Tabeel Lewis v The State (Republic of Trinidad & Tobago), heard 10 March 2011.

Peter Stewart v The Queen (Jamaica), heard 28 March 2011.

Rohan Vidal and Kevin Thompson v The Queen (Jamaica), heard 29 March 2011.

Rhett Allen Fuller v The Attorney General of Belize, heard 11 – 12 April 2011.

Rajendra Krishna v The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, heard 13 – 14 April 2011.

Omar Grieves and Others v The Queen, heard 4 May 2011.

Permanent Secretary (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and Patrick Manning v Feroza Ramjohn, heard 10 – 11 May 2011.

The Honourable Prime Minister Mr Patrick Manning, The Public Service v Ganga Persad Kissoon, heard 12 May 2011.