The Court Funds (Amendment) Rules 2026 were made on 3 June 2026, laid before Parliament on 5 June 2026 and will come into force on 29 June 2026. The instrument applies in England and Wales and was made by the Lord Chancellor under the Administration of Justice Act 1982, with Treasury concurrence. According to the instrument, the change is a corrective measure following a defect in S.I. 2025/1275. The correction is being issued free of charge to all known recipients of that earlier statutory instrument, which is a standard administrative step where an error in published legislation needs to be remedied.
The rules amend the Court Funds Rules 2011, which govern how funds paid into court are administered by the Accountant General. In practice, those rules matter where money is held by the court pending payment out, including in civil proceedings and cases involving protected parties. The 2026 amendment makes two substantive changes. The first narrows the use of the special account for court funds. The second replaces rule 27 in full to repair drafting errors introduced by the 2025 amendment and to remove uncertainty around payment out under Civil Procedure Rule 37.3.
On the first point, rule 11 of the 2011 Rules is amended so that money may not be invested in a special account unless it is money to which a child or a person who lacks capacity is entitled. The Explanatory Note states that this new paragraph is intended to put the position beyond doubt. That matters because the 2011 framework uses both a basic account and a special account for interest-bearing funds. By stating expressly that the special account is reserved for children and persons lacking capacity, the amendment reduces scope for inconsistent treatment and gives court staff and practitioners a clearer test when deciding how funds should be held.
The second and more detailed amendment concerns payments out of money paid into court where a Part 36 offer is accepted. The new rule 27 now states, in clearer terms, what the Accountant General must receive before a payment can be made from a fund in court where permission of the court is not required. Where rule 22A(1) does not apply, the Accountant General must be provided with a written request from the claimant and written confirmation from the defendant that all or part of the fund in court may be used to satisfy the offer in whole or in part. Where rule 22A(1) does apply, the same material may be provided electronically. The Explanatory Note says this is designed to clarify the requirements on both claimant and defendant under CPR rule 37.3.
The substituted rule also preserves the remainder of the payment-out framework that existed before the 2025 amendment. It states that any accrued interest remaining in court after a payment under paragraph (2) or rule 28(2) is to be paid to the defendant. It also keeps the restriction applying where more than one defendant is sued jointly and not all defendants have paid money into court. In those cases, the Accountant General may not make payment unless the claimant has discontinued against the defendants who did not pay into court and the required notice of discontinuance and written consents are supplied, whether by post or electronically where rule 22A(1) applies.
The practical effect is mainly procedural rather than policy-led. For claimants, defendants and legal representatives, the amendment gives a more reliable statement of what documents must be lodged before money can be released from court funds following acceptance of a Part 36 offer. For court administrators, it restores a complete and workable text for rule 27 after the defective 2025 drafting. The Explanatory Note is explicit that the replacement text is intended to remove ambiguity about whether the 2025 Amendment Rules accidentally omitted the remainder of rule 27. The renumbering is described as a drafting clarification only, with no wider change to the substance of those preserved provisions.
For practitioners, the main compliance point is timing. Any file preparation for payments out on or after 29 June 2026 should be checked against the substituted rule 27 and the revised rule 11. In matters involving children or protected parties, the special account restriction will now be stated on the face of the rules rather than inferred from practice or previous drafting. The Government has not produced a full impact assessment for the instrument. The accompanying note states that no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen. That assessment is consistent with the narrow purpose of the measure: to correct defective drafting and confirm operational requirements rather than to introduce a new court funds policy.