This practice note provides a brief overview of the circumstances in which documents can be withheld from disclosure, and the circumstances in which documents must be disclosed but need not be made available for inspection. It focuses on cases 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 (DPS) (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 DPS. For details of our content providing guidance on the approach to disclosure under PD 57AD (and its predecessor, PD 51U), see Disclosure in the B&PCs toolkit.