Citation, commencement and interpretation

1. —(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Access to Justice (Membership Organisation) Regulations 2005 and shall come into force on 1 ^st November 2005.

(2) In these Regulations a reference to a section by number alone is a reference to the section so numbered in the Access to Justice Act 1999.

Revocation and transitional

2. —(1) Subject to paragraph (2), the Access to Justice (Membership Organisation) Regulations 2000( 3 ) (the “2000 Regulations”) are revoked.

(2) The 2000 Regulations shall continue to have effect for the purposes of arrangements entered into before 1 ^st November 2005 as if these Regulations had not come into force.

Bodies of a prescribed description

3. The bodies which are prescribed for the purpose of section 30 (recovery where body undertakes to meet costs liabilities) are those bodies which are for the time being approved by the Secretary of State for that purpose.

Requirements for arrangements to meet costs liabilities

4. —(1) Section 30(1) applies to arrangements which satisfy the following conditions.

(2) The arrangements must be in writing.

(3) The arrangements must contain a statement specifying the circumstances in which the member may be liable to pay costs of the proceedings.

Recovery of additional amount for insurance costs

5. —(1) Where an additional amount is included in costs by virtue of section 30(2) (costs payable to a member of a body or other person party to the proceedings to include an additional amount in respect of provision made by the body against the risk of having to meet the member’s or other person’s liabilities to pay other parties' costs), that additional amount must not exceed the following sum.

(2) That sum is the likely cost to the member of the body or, as the case may be, the other person who is a party to the proceedings in which the costs order is made of the premium of an insurance policy against the risk of incurring a liability to pay the costs of other parties to the proceedings.