United Kingdom Contract Handbook

Cross-handbook reference resources. Read these first when drafting any specific contract type.

• ›English contract law basics — offer, acceptance, consideration, intention to create legal relations, certainty, the doctrine of privity, Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999
• ›Unfair contract terms — UCTA 1977 (B2B), Consumer Rights Act 2015 Part 2 (B2C), reasonableness test, fairness test
• ›Standard boilerplate clauses — governing law (English law election), jurisdiction (exclusive vs. non-exclusive), entire agreement, severance, force majeure (no implied doctrine in English law), indemnities, limitation of liability, third-party rights exclusion

• ›Non-Disclosure Agreement / Confidentiality Agreement — equitable + contractual obligations; Coco v A.N. Clark (Engineers) test
• ›Master Services Agreement — services frame + IP + SLAs
• ›Statement of Work — subordinate to MSA; scope, deliverables, acceptance
• ›Consultancy Agreement — independent contractor framework; IR35 employment-status tests
• ›Software Licence Agreement — Software Directive (UK retained) + UCTA + CRA digital content
• ›Distribution Agreement — competition law (Chapter I CA 1998 + retained vertical block exemption)
• ›Heads of Terms — "subject to contract"; binding vs. non-binding provisions; RTS Flexible Systems v Müller [2010] UKSC 14
• ›Asset Purchase Agreement — TUPE 2006 implications; warranties + indemnities

• ›Employment Contract / Section 1 Statement — ERA 1996 s.1 written particulars (day-one right since April 2020); express + implied terms
• ›Restrictive Covenants — Tillman v Egon Zehnder [2019] UKSC 32; non-compete, non-solicit, non-deal; blue-pencil doctrine
• ›Settlement Agreement — s.203 ERA 1996; ACAS COT3 alternative; required statutory wording
• ›Service Agreement (Director) — Companies Act 2006 s.188 (≥2-year terms require shareholder approval); fiduciary overlay

• ›Privacy Notice — UK GDPR Articles 13/14 + DPA 2018; ICO guidance; one-stop-shop post-Brexit
• ›Website Terms of Use — incorporation; CRA Part 2 fairness; Parker v South Eastern Rly notice principle
• ›Cookies Policy — Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) reg 6; ICO 2023 guidance; consent + reject parity
• ›Accessibility Statement — Equality Act 2010 s.20 reasonable adjustments; PSBAR 2018 (public sector); WCAG 2.2 AA
• ›Consumer Contract Terms — CRA 2015 + Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013; 14-day cancellation right for distance/off-premises

• ›Data Processing Agreement — UK GDPR Article 28; ICO controller-processor template; UK Addendum to EU SCCs (IDTA / Addendum 21 March 2022)
• ›Data Sharing Agreement — ICO Data Sharing Code of Practice (statutory under DPA 2018 s.121); controller-to-controller

The full UK handbook is published as machine-readable JSON, validated against the shared schema.

• ›Aggregated bundle — data/handbook/uk.json — single fetch with every record
• ›Per-record JSON files — data/handbook/uk/
• ›Schema — data/handbook/schema.json

For AI agents, the API documentation describes the bundle URL pattern, schema fields, and example agent workflow.

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