TC09680 - [2025] UKFTT 01332 (TC)

In Inco Europe Lord Nicholls acknowledged that it was possible to read words into legislation to correct obvious drafting errors. Given the interpretive role of courts/tribunals, before doing so the Tribunal must be abundantly sure of: (1) the intended purpose of the statute or provision in question; (2) that by inadvertence the draftsman and Parliament failed to give effect to that purpose in the provision in question; and (3) the substance of the provision Parliament would have made, although not necessarily the precise words Parliament would have used, had the error in the Bill been noticed.

I now consider these factors in turn.