This is a list of the judgments given by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in the year 2021.
In 2021, Lord Reed of Allermuir was the President of the Supreme Court; Lord Hodge was the Deputy President.
The table lists judgments made by the court and the opinions of the judges in each case. Judges are treated as having concurred in another's judgment when they either formally attach themselves to the judgment of another or speak only to acknowledge their concurrence with one or more judges. Any judgment which reaches a conclusion which differs from the majority on one or more major points of the appeal has been treated as dissent.
All dates are for 2021 unless expressly stated otherwise.
2021 case summaries Unless otherwise noted, cases were heard by a panel of 5 judges.
Cases involving Scots law are highlighted in orange. Cases involving Northern Irish law are highlighted in green. Case name Citation Date Legal subject Summary of decisionFinancial Conduct Authority v Arch Insurance (UK) Ltd & others UKSC 115 January 2021Insurance lawDetermining that commercial insurance for "business interruption" during the COVID-19 pandemic did respond to the lockdowns.R (on the application of KBR, Inc) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office UKSC 25 February 2021Criminal Law, FraudOn the scope of extraterritorial application of the Serious Fraud Office, the SFO does not have the power to compel a foreign company to produce documents held outside of the United Kingdom.Okpabi and others v Royal Dutch Shell Plc and another UKSC 312 February 2021Company law, Environmental LawEnglish courts have jurisdiction over claims by victims of oil leaks from pipelines in the Niger Delta.T W Logistics Ltd v Essex County Council & another UKSC 412 February 2021Land LawRegistration of land as a green does not criminalize pre-existing activities and local people have to exercise their rights over a town or village green in a fair and reasonable way.Uber BV v Aslam UKSC 519 February 2021Labour LawDrivers for Uber were "workers" within the definition in section 230(3)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and were thus entitled to the minimum wage and holiday pay.Evergreen Marine (UK) Limited v Nautical Challenge Ltd2021 UKSC 619 February 2021Mercantile LawFor ship collision avoidance regulations, the crossing rules ought to be applied wherever possible and strictly enforced because they tend to secure safe navigation.Begum v Secretary of State for the Home Department UKSC 726 February 2021Nationality LawThe Home Secretary appealed an earlier decision by the Court of Appeal in the case of Shamima Begum whose citizenship had been removed and who currently resides in a detainment camp in Syria.Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake UKSC 819 March 2021Labour lawCare workers are not entitled to be paid the National Minimum wage for all the time that they were on a 'sleep-in' shift.G (Appellant) v G (Respondent) UKSC 919 March 2021Family Law, Asylum LawA return order in child abduction proceedings cannot be implemented until the appeal in any asylum claim made by the child or with the child as a dependant has been determined.Asda Stores v Brierley and others UKSC 1026 March 2021Labour law, Equal Pay Act 1970Employees working in Asda's stores can use as comparators employees working in Asda's distribution centres for the purposes of an equal pay claim.Balhousie Holdings Ltd v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (Scotland) UKSC 1131 March 2021Value-Added Tax, Tax LawBCL did not dispose of its 'entire interest' in the care home, which meant HMRC was wrong to claw back the benefit of a zero-rating.Burnett or Grant v International Insurance Company of Hanover Limited UKSC 1223 April 2021Insurance lawConsidered what is meant by 'deliberate acts' in an exclusion clause in a public liability insurance policy.Rittson-Thomas and others v Oxfordshire County Council UKSC 1323 April 2021Land Law, Schools Sites Act 1841Land granted to a county council under the School Sites Act 1841 for use as a school did not cease to be used for that purpose, and therefore did not revert to the donor's estate, when the school moved to a new site and the land was sold with vacant possession, with the intention that the proceeds of sale would be used towards paying off the costs of acquiring the new site.Zabolotnyi v The Mateszalka District Court, Hungary UKSC 1430 April 2021Extradition Law, European Convention on Human RightsThere is no heightened test for the admissibility of evidence concerning alleged breaches of assurances given to a third state.Her Majesty's Attorney General v Timothy Crosland UKSC 1510 May 2021Contempt of CourtThe lawyer committed criminal contempt of court by leaking a draft of the UKSC's judgment backing Heathrow Airport's expansion plans a day before the ruling was officially released.Hurstwood Properties (A) Ltd and others v Rossendale Borough Council and another UKSC 1614 May 2021Local Government Finance Act 1988Local authorities can sue two property developers over unpaid business rates.Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs v Tooth UKSC 1714 May 2021Tax LawThere was no deliberate inaccuracy in Tooth's tax return.R (on the application of Fylde Coast Farms Ltd (formerly Oyston Estates Ltd)) v Fylde Borough Council UKSC 1814 May 2021Town and Country Planning Act 1990Oyston's legal challenge was made out of time.Matthew v Sedman UKSC 1921 May 2021Limitation periodsIn a 'midnight deadline' case, the limitation period starts on the day rather than the following day and thus the appellant's claim was time barred.Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK LLP UKSC 2018 June 2021Negligence, scope of dutyThe Manchester Building Society could bring a claim for damages against Grant Thornton as a result of negligent accounting advice which ultimately resulted in MBS closing a number of hedges at a loss.Khan v Meadows UKSC 2118 June 2021Clinical negligenceGeneral Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd v State of Libya UKSC 2225 June 2021State Immunity Act 1978Director of Public Prosecutions v Ziegler UKSC 2325 June 2021Highways Act 1980Secretary of State for Health v Servier Laboratories Ltd UKSC 242 July 2021Causing loss by unlawful meansR (on the application of Haworth) v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs UKSC 252 July 2021R (on the application of SC, CB and 8 children) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions UKSC 269 July 2021A and B v Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority UKSC 279 July 2021R (on the application of AB) v Secretary of State for Justice UKSC 289 July 2021Triple Point Technology, Inc v PTT Public Company Ltd UKSC 2916 July 2021Contract lawSanambar v Secretary of State for the Home Department UKSC 3016 July 2021Test Claimants in the Franked Investment Income Group Litigation & Others (Respondents) v Commissioners of Inland Revenue (Appellant) (1) Test Claimants in the Franked Investment Income Group Litigation & Others (Respondents) v Commissioners of Inland Revenue (Appellant) (2) UKSC 3123 July 2021Harcus Sinclair LLP v Your Lawyers Ltd UKSC 3223 July 2021Contract Law, Non-complete agreement, Restraint of tradeA six-year non competition clause included in a commercial non-disclosure agreement between two law firms was not an unlawful restraint of trade and therefore was enforceable. Solicitors' undertakings provided by limited liability partnerships do not fall within a court's inherent supervisory jurisdiction over solicitors and therefore are not summarily enforceable by the court.Royal Mail Group Ltd v Efobi UKSC 3323 July 2021Labour Law, Burden of ProofThe burden of proof in discrimination claims lies with the claimant, in this case the employee, who must provide facts from which a tribunal could draw an inference of discrimination.X v Kuoni Travel Ltd UKSC 3430 July 2021Contract Law, EU Law, Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992The decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union determined that an employee of hotel which is booked through a package travel organiser is not himself a 'supplier of services' but that a travel organiser may still be liable for the acts of the employee if they constitute improper performance under the contract. Following this judgement the supreme court found that the deliberate acts of a hotel employee, in sexually assaulting a guest, constituted an improper performance of the tour operator's obligations and therefore the operator was liable for breach of contract.In the matter of T (A Child) UKSC 3530 July 2021Family Law, Liberty, Children Act 1989, Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act 2014The High Court's inherent jurisdiction can be used to authorise the deprivation of liberty in order to keep a child safe from harm where no alternative route for safeguarding the child is available (in this case a lack of resource in the child care system). The court's may cut across relevant provisions of the Children Act 1989 when using their inherent jurisdiction in such cases and in doing so are not in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.CPRE (Kent) v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government UKSC 3630 July 2021Costs in English law, Civil Procedure Rules, Planning LawWhere defendants and an interested party each incurred costs of preparing acknowledgments of service and summary grounds then there was no general rule in planning cases limiting the number of parties that can recover such costs.R (on the application of A) v Secretary of State for the Home Department UKSC 3730 July 2021Sexual offences in the United Kingdom; Gillick competenceTest for a police force, when approached for information regarding a person about whom concerns are raised relating to their contact with children, is obliged in law to seek representations from the person before disclosing any information.R (on the application of BF (Eritrea)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department UKSC 3830 July 2021Asylum lawReview of Home Office's regime for determining the age of asylum seekers entering the United Kingdom.Tinkler v Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs UKSC 3930 July 2021Tax lawReview when a taxpayer is prevented from challenging the validity of an enquiry into their tax return by HMRC where both parties have proceeded, for nearly a decade, on the mistaken assumption that the enquiry was validly initiated by a letter sent to the taxpayer.Times Travel (UK) Ltd v Pakistan International Airlines Corp UKSC 4018 August 2021English contract lawWhen a party can set aside a contract on the ground that it was entered into as a result of the other party threatening to do a lawful act.R (on the application of TN (Vietnam)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department UKSC 4122 September 2021Fast Track Procedure 2005; Asylum lawDetermined effect of structural unfairness in the FTA 2005 on individual appeal determinations.Reference by the Attorney General and the Advocate General for Scotland—European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill UKSC 426 October 2021Scotland Act 1998; DevolutionThe UNCRC Bill and ECLSG Bill passed by the Scottish Parliament were outside its legislative competence; the Bills are to return to the Scottish Parliament for further consideration.Ho v Adelekun UKSC 436 October 2021Civil Procedure RulesCalculation of damages/pre-settlement costs.Anwar v The Advocate General UKSC 4413 October 2021Equality Act 2010; EU lawThe government did not breach its obligations under the relevant EU directives to provide effective interim protection for successful workplace discrimination and harassment claims.FS Cairo (Nile Plaza) LLC v Brownlie (as Dependant and Executrix of Professor Sir Ian Brownlie CBE QC) UKSC 4520 October 2021English tort law;