{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/trade-union-and-labour-relations-consolidation-act-1992/section-256A",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/trade-union-and-labour-relations-consolidation-act-1992/section-256A.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/1992/52",
  "legislation_title": "Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/trade-union-and-labour-relations-consolidation-act-1992",
  "path": "section/256A",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "256A",
  "heading": "Vexatious litigants.",
  "text": "(1) The Certification Officer may refuse to entertain any application or complaint made to him under a provision of Chapters III to VIIA of Part I by a vexatious litigant.\n(2) The Certification Officer must give reasons for such a refusal.\n(3) Subsection (1) does not apply to a complaint under section 37E(1)(b) or to an application under section 41.\n(4) For the purposes of subsection (1) a vexatious litigant is a person who is the subject of—\n(a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\n(b) a civil proceedings order or an all proceedings order which is made under section 42(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 and which remains in force,\n(c) an order which is made under section 1 of the Vexatious Actions (Scotland) Act 1898 or a vexatious litigation order made under section 100 of the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, or\n(d) an order which is made under section 32 of the Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978.",
  "extent": "E+W+S",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Ss. 256A, 256B inserted (25.10.1999) by 1999 c. 26, s. 29, Sch. 6 paras. 1, 23; S.I. 1999/2830, art. 2(1), Sch. 1 Pt. I (with Sch. 3 para. 5)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "S. 256A(4)(a) repealed (6.4.2005) by Employment Relations Act 2004 (c. 24), ss. 57(2), 59(2)-(4), Sch. 2; S.I. 2005/872, art. 4, Sch (with arts. 6-21)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "S. 256A(4)(b): words substituted wherever they occur in any enactment (1.10.2009) by virtue of Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4), ss. 59, 148, Sch. 11 para. 1; S.I. 2009/1604, art. 2(b)(d)"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F4",
      "text": "Words in s. 256A(4)(c) inserted (S.) (28.11.2016) by The Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 (Relevant Officer and Consequential Provisions) Order 2016 (S.S.I. 2016/387), art. 1, sch. 2 para. 2"
    },
    {
      "type": "M",
      "label": "M1",
      "text": "1898 c. 35."
    },
    {
      "type": "M",
      "label": "M2",
      "text": "1978 c. 23."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/52/section/256A",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T09:35:34.194369+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}