The judicial review began today at the high court - London.
For inland revenue: Richard Plender QC and Rabinder Singh
For PCG: Gerald Barling and Kelvyn Bacon
Sarah Walker of inland revenue was also present
Mr Justice Burton was presiding
To sum up…..it was a pretty good day for Contractors and the PCG. The war isn’t won yet, but the first advance was encouraging. The next couple of days will be interesting.
So, what happened today?....
Justice Burton opened by saying that owing to time constraints, he was only able to get through skeleton arguments, and that the point of the appeal was the question "What is the effect of the Legislation?"
Barling contended that the legislation has a detrimental effect on small business but Plender then stated that the legislation did not only effect the small business and the knowledge based sector.
Before lunch, the grounds for the JR were discussed, and the judge had familiarised himself with the legislation, since during the morning it appeared that he had not done his homework (tut, tut!).
The afternoon was spent discussing the current arrangements in the IT industry. Burton acknowledged that it was a reality that both client and contractor benefited from the pre-IR35 arrangements.
The review continues tomorrow at 10am, and the latest news will be posted as soon as it becomes available.