This guide is written for solicitors, trainees and law students in England and Wales.
The Business and Property Division of the High Court replaces the Chancery Division on 1 October 2026. This tracker covers what changes, which courts move across, and the three instruments doing the work. It also lists what firms need to alter before the date. We update it as new forms and guidance appear.
Who is this tracker for?
Anyone who issues in the High Court. Commercial, chancery, construction, shipping and insolvency lawyers feel it first.
It reaches past the litigation team, though. Knowledge lawyers run the precedent banks. Marketing keeps the practice-area pages. Commercial teams draft the jurisdiction clauses. All three touch a Division that is about to stop existing.
If you never go near the High Court, this is cosmetic. If you issue there monthly, it is a template job with a deadline.
What actually changes on 1 October?
Three things, and only three.
The Chancery Division takes a new name: the Business and Property Division. The Business and Property Courts, split today across the King’s Bench Division and the Chancery Division, come together inside it. And the head of the Division takes a new title. Chancellor of the High Court becomes President of the Business and Property Division.
That is the whole reform. It changes structure and naming. It does not move a hearing, alter a procedure, or change which judge takes what.
Which courts sit in the new Division?
| Court or list | Division 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 list | Chancery Division | Business and Property Division |
| Financial list | Chancery Division | Business and Property Division |
| Competition list | Chancery Division | Business and Property Division |
| Insolvency and Companies list | Chancery Division | Business and Property Division |
| Head of Division | Chancellor of the High Court | President of the Business and Property Division |
The Business and Property Courts started life in 2017. They were a listing arrangement, not a Division of the High Court. Their judges have therefore sat across two Divisions ever since, which is the anomaly this reform closes.
Watch the wording on the Technology and Construction Court. The High Court TCC moves. County Court TCC work is a different question, and the rules do not fold it into this change.
What does not change
More than the headline suggests.
The King’s Bench Division keeps its general civil work. It keeps the Administrative Court and the Media and Communications List. The Family Division is untouched.
Inside the new Division, the specialist lists keep their names and their judges. A Financial List claim is still a Financial List claim. The Shorter and Flexible Trials Schemes carry on. Disclosure under PD 57AD still applies to Business and Property work.
Nor does the reform change where a claim is heard. A TCC claim issued in Birmingham stays in Birmingham. Regional Business and Property Courts continue as they are.
The instruments doing the work
Three, and they interlock.
The Civil Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2026, or SI 2026/817, carries the rule changes. It comes into force variously from 1 October 2026.
The 196th Practice Direction Update carries the supporting practice direction changes. It shares the 1 October date, or takes effect as the instrument sets out.
The Senior Courts (Transfer, Amendment and Consequential Provision) Order 2026 lines up the underlying statutory framework.
Two notices sit behind them. The Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice laid a Written Ministerial Statement before Parliament on 2 June 2026. The Lady Chief Justice put out a matching note.
Read the commencement provisions rather than assuming one date covers everything in SI 2026/817. The Respect Orders rules in the same instrument start on 26 October.
What else is in the same instrument?
Two things, and neither one is about the Division.
Respect Orders get their court procedure. New rules go into Part 65, PD 65 and PD 2B, and they start on 26 October. A Respect Order is a new civil order aimed at repeat anti-social behaviour. Breach of one is a crime.
Part 75 changes too. Those rules govern the Traffic Enforcement Centre, which handles unpaid traffic penalties. The changes tidy up addresses, wording and warrant practice.
Neither touches the Division. Both share the instrument, which is why the dates differ.
What should firms change before October?
- Pull every precedent that names the Chancery Division or the Chancellor of the High Court. Claim forms, particulars, applications, consent orders, draft directions.
- Do the same for client-facing copy. Engagement letters, practice-area pages, directory submissions, tender documents, partner CVs.
- Check jurisdiction and dispute resolution clauses in standard contracts. A clause naming the Chancery Division will not be fatal, but it will not age well either.
- Diarise a second pass for the autumn, once the new court forms appear.
- Brief the team on the new title before the first October hearing.
- Leave existing judgments, filed pleadings and closed files alone.
One page a litigator can check before issuing after 1 October, instead of piecing it together from three instruments.
How should firms explain it to clients?
Briefly, and without alarm.
A client with a live claim may see a different Division name on paperwork in October. Nothing about their case moves. The judge does not change. The timetable does not change. The costs do not change.
The one group who may want more is clients drafting long-term contracts now. A jurisdiction clause signed in September that names the Chancery Division will point at a court that no longer exists by the time a dispute arises. It will still work, because the courts read such clauses in a practical way, but a clean clause is cheaper than an argument about a stale one.
Common mistakes
Rewriting history. Judgments handed down before October name the Chancery Division correctly. So do pleadings already filed. Retrofitting them creates confusion rather than clearing it.
Assuming a single commencement date. SI 2026/817 comes into force variously. Anyone quoting 1 October for every provision in it will be wrong about Respect Orders.
Treating it as a venue change. Nothing here moves a hearing. Telling a client their case has been transferred would be wrong.
Assuming the whole TCC moves. The instrument names the High Court TCC.
Finishing the template job in August. The forms are not out yet, so a project that closes now will need reopening.
What we are still watching
| Item | Status | Next check |
|---|---|---|
| Updated and simplified court forms | Promised, no publication date given | 1 October 2026 |
| Transitional treatment of claims issued before 1 October | Not addressed in the announcements | 1 October 2026 |
| Reissue of the Commercial Court, Chancery and TCC Guides | Not announced | 1 October 2026 |
| How law reports and citation practice handle the switch | Unresolved | 1 October 2026 |
| Whether the Court taxonomy on case listings updates cleanly | Unknown | 1 October 2026 |
Official sources
- Civil Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2026 (SI 2026/817)
- Civil Procedure Rules updates page, including the 196th Practice Direction Update
- Written Ministerial Statement HCWS79, 2 June 2026
Our news coverage of the Division reform sets out the announcement in full. For the wider costs picture, see the July court fee rises.
Last updated
3 August 2026. Next review on 1 October 2026, when the Division comes into being and the new forms are expected.