Dear Users of the Handbook
You will recall our e mail of 10th December when we explained that, owing to legislative change and uncertainty, we will terminate access to the Handbook and Journal from this week.
We are very grateful for the many messages we have received from subscribers who have said how frequently it has been used and how valuable it has been. We fully understand everyone’s disappointment about its withdrawal. We sympathise with users who are working in Wales and Northern Ireland where the changes to the legislation will not be so traumatic, at least for the time being. We understand why subscribers have been suggesting ways the Handbook might ‘live on’. But whatever format that might be in, continuing to use it in its unamended form would be a high-risk strategy and would be bound to lead to problems of misapplication in the future as the amending and evading legislation comes into force. Several people have also pointed out that they may need to have access to historical content should queries arise in case work in the future as to what the Handbook said before it was withdrawn.
We have given considerable thought as to how users may be able to keep some sort of record of key parts of the Handbook, for example, some of the principles in Part C for future reference.
We have decided that a reasonable solution is this:
- We will leave user access open until 1400 hrs on Friday 30th January 2026, after which access will no longer be available.
- If you wish to retain specific Handbook content strictly for your own personal or business historical record purposes, you may use the ‘print’ facility described below before that time.
- Whilst printing the Handbook content would otherwise be a breach of our terms and conditions, we will waive our right to challenge any printing of material strictly for this and no other purpose.
You should be able to access the print facility as follows: -
- Click ‘Browse the Handbook’ and open the section you wish to copy (e.g. C.12)
- In the header bar along the top of the webpage click on the three dots button towards the far right or press [Alt + F]
- Click ‘Print’ on the drop-down list (which may be listed under ‘More tools’ depending on your browser settings).
- Print using your system dialogue facility
- The appearance / font / layout etc will be different but the text will be the same as in the Handbook and will be available to print off.
- Be sure that you only print the pages you need, because other content or instructions etc may also print if care is not taken.
We must emphasise that you should not continue to use or otherwise rely on the Handbook content in current or future case work after 31st December 2025. If you do, you do so entirely at your own risk and we and DTA Publications Limited have no liability whatsoever for any consequences of continued use.
You should also be aware that if it comes to our attention that any legal person or entity has breached our copyright or our intellectual property, other than the specified printing permitted above, by using the content of the Handbook, its concepts or principles in any published form, without our written consent, we will not hesitate to commence legal proceedings.
We further recognise that in exceptional cases, a precisely defined section of the contents of the Handbook, as it stood at 31st December 2025, with the caveat about the Supreme Court decision in C.G. Fry, may need to be made available. This would be where its guidance, or the application of its guidance, is seriously challenged in a particular case. We are therefore advising users that in this particular circumstance you should contact David Tyldesley on david@dt-a.co.uk with full details as to the need to have access to the content. The details should include the specific material required, and the relevant date of use, the basis of the challenge and a timescale for receipt. You will need to allow reasonable time for a response as David has technically ‘retired’ and will not necessarily be able to respond quickly. If justified by the circumstances David will scan and forward the relevant page(s) of the hard copy which he will continue to keep until the end of December 2028.
We hope that these initiatives will be of help to former subscribers.
Where applicable, please ensure that all other users of the Handbook in your organisation are aware of this email. We will post details of this email in the main user ‘welcome’ page in the meantime to alert users who are not included in our email distribution list.
Kind regards
David and Caroline