A statement made by a party disclosing documents in civil litigation, in cases subject to the disclosure regime under Civil Procedure Rule (CPR) 31, Practice Direction (PD) 31A and PD 31B, that:

(See CPR 31.10(6).)

The standard disclosure procedure expressly requires the list of documents to include a disclosure statement (see CPR 31.10(5) and PD 31A.4.1 to 4.7). Although CPR 31.10(8)(b) allows the parties to agree in writing to disclose documents without the disclosing party making a disclosure statement, this is uncommon.

Disclosure statements are also likely to be required where an order for something other than standard disclosure is made under the disclosure regime set out in CPR 31, PD 31A and PD 31B.

The required form of the disclosure statement is set out in the Annex to PD 31A.

For more information on disclosure statements, see Practice notes, Disclosure: preparing the list of documents and Disclosure: who should sign the disclosure statement?.

Note that, for cases in the Business and Property Courts that are subject to PD 57AD ("Disclosure in the Business and Property Courts"), there is a requirement for a Disclosure Certificate (see PD 57AD.12.1(1), paragraph 1.5 of Appendix 1 to PD 57AD (which sets out the definition) and Appendix 4 (which sets out the required format, rather than Appendix 3 which is referred to in the definition)). PD 57AD took effect on 1 October 2022, replacing what was PD 51U, and implementing, on a permanent basis, the procedures that applied, from 1 January 2019 until 1 October 2022, under the Disclosure Pilot Scheme.

For details of our materials on the approach to disclosure under PD 57AD, see Disclosure in the B&PCs toolkit.

Proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against a person who signs, or causes to be signed by another person, a false disclosure statement or a false Disclosure Certificate, without an honest belief in its truth (CPR 31.23 and PD 57AD.23.1).