The Business and Property Division of the High Court opens on 1 October 2026. It takes the place of the Chancery Division. New rules move the Commercial Court, the Admiralty Court, the Circuit Commercial Courts and the Technology and Construction Court into it. The judge who leads the Division also gets a new title.
What changes on 1 October 2026?
Three things change at once.
The Chancery Division is renamed. The Business and Property Courts come under one roof. And the head of the Division swaps titles: the Chancellor of the High Court becomes the President of the Business and Property Division.
The rules doing the work are the Civil Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2026, or SI 2026/817. They come into force variously from 1 October. Read those dates with care. The Respect Orders rules in the same instrument wait until 26 October.
The 196th Practice Direction Update carries the supporting changes. It shares the 1 October date. Both sit alongside the Senior Courts (Transfer, Amendment and Consequential Provision) Order 2026.
Which courts move into the new Division?
The Business and Property Courts began life in 2017. They were a listing arrangement rather than a Division of the High Court. Their judges sat across two Divisions at once. That is the oddity this reform ends.
Four courts cross over from the King’s Bench Division.
| Court or list | Now | From 1 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial Court | King’s Bench Division | Business and Property Division |
| Admiralty Court | King’s Bench Division | Business and Property Division |
| Circuit Commercial Courts | King’s Bench Division | Business and Property Division |
| Technology and Construction Court (High Court) | King’s Bench Division | Business and Property Division |
| Business, Financial, Competition, Insolvency and Companies lists | Chancery Division | Business and Property Division |
| Head of Division | Chancellor of the High Court | President of the Business and Property Division |
Who hears a claim does not change. Nor does where it is heard. Judges keep their specialisms and the lists keep their names. This is a change of structure and label, not of venue.
The Chancellor becomes the President
The title of Chancellor of the High Court dates from the shake-up of the senior judiciary in 1970. Before that the post was the Vice-Chancellor. Losing the name is the most visible part of the whole reform.
The change reaches well past one office. Skeleton arguments name the Chancery Division. So do standard directions, precedent orders, court guides and firm web pages. Each of those goes out of date on 1 October.
There is a second-order effect too. Anyone drafting a jurisdiction clause or an arbitration carve-out that names the Chancery Division should think about how it will read in five years. A clause pointing at a court that no longer exists is not fatal. It is not tidy either.
Why is the government making this change?
It gives three reasons. Raise the profile of the commercial courts. Improve access to justice. Simplify court language and process.
Those aims appear in a Written Ministerial Statement laid before Parliament on 2 June 2026 by the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. The Lady Chief Justice issued a matching note the same day.
The market logic is easy to follow. London competes with Singapore, Dubai and Amsterdam for cross-border work. “Business and Property Division” says what it does. “Chancery” does not, unless you already know. Whether a name wins work is a separate question, and this reform does not try to answer it.
A set of new and simpler court forms will follow. None had appeared when this piece went out. That leaves a gap for firms that want to see the wording before October rather than after it.
What should firms do before October?
Template review is the job. It is bigger than it first looks.
Claim forms. Particulars. Applications. Consent orders. Engagement letters. Directory entries. Practice-area pages on the firm website. Each one may name a Division that will not exist in nine weeks.
Two points are worth taking to a supervising partner. First, old judgments and pleadings name the Chancery Division correctly, so leave them alone. There is no need to rewrite history. Second, the courts will run on forms nobody has seen yet. A template project that starts in August may well need a second pass in the autumn.
Cases already issued are the loose end to watch. Nothing in the rules suggests live claims move or need reissuing. Still, a matter with a hearing in the first week of October will be papered under one name and heard under another.
Our coverage of the July court fee rises and of recent High Court practice shows a civil system moving quickly on several fronts at once.
From 1 October 2026 the Chancery Division no longer exists. Claim forms, statements of case, precedent banks and website practice-area pages that name the Chancery Division or the Chancellor of the High Court will be out of date, and the Commercial Court, Admiralty Court, Circuit Commercial Courts and TCC will all sit in a single Business and Property Division. Firms should schedule a template review now rather than in October.
What else is in the same package?
SI 2026/817 is a busy instrument. It also adds the Part 65 route for Respect Orders under the Crime and Policing Act 2026, from 26 October. Respect Orders are new civil orders aimed at repeat anti-social behaviour, and breach is a crime. The instrument reworks Part 75 as well, which governs the Traffic Enforcement Centre.
The 196th Practice Direction Update adds three more changes on the same 1 October date.
PD 54D cuts target timescales for judicial review of nationally significant infrastructure projects. That change follows the independent review by Lord Banner KC.
PD 49B drops the standard interim payment figure in mesothelioma claims. The Master of the Rolls can then uprate it without a rule change, which is quicker.
PD 51ZE pulls non-injury road traffic claims, the ones known as bent metal claims, into the mandatory mediation scheme. That lines it up with the pilot under PD 51R.
Three practice groups each pick up a change. Planning teams get the faster judicial review clock. Asbestos teams get a figure that can move mid-year. Motor teams get automatic mediation on damage-only claims. For litigators, 1 October is the busiest single date in this year’s civil calendar.