The Civil Procedure Rule Committee (CPRC) is considering certain proposals to amend Practice Direction (PD) 62 (Applications for permission to appeal under section 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996) to address some of the perceived difficulties with the existing procedure. The minutes of the CPRC meeting of 18 June 2010 (approved at the CPRC meeting on 10 July and published shortly thereafter) report that the issue was briefly considered at that meeting, but that in view of the fact that further amendments to PD 62 were tabled at the June meeting, a revised draft PD 62 would be circulated for comment in due course.

Although the further amendments are not yet available, the memorandum prepared by Moore-Bick LJ for the June meeting (attaching an initial draft revised PD 62) highlights the issues under debate and the broad thrust of the proposals. Applications can rarely be determined simply and quickly, in view of the excessive material that is submitted. The structure of the process, which is geared primarily to oral hearings, gives tacit encouragement to parties to serve evidence at each stage. Moreover, the absence of any explicit provision for service of a skeleton argument encourages parties to include argument in their witness statements.

Various options have been considered during consultation with the Commercial Court and Technology and Construction Court judges, members of the Bar, and solicitors' firms involved in the Commercial Court Users' Committee. The memorandum concludes that the only viable option is to revise PD 62 to introduce a more refined structure, with the aim of achieving greater speed and efficiency. The key changes under consideration are:

We will continue to monitor this development and report further once the revised draft PD 62 becomes publicly available.