The special circumstances defence 



Under the TUPE regulations, an employer may be able to reduce or even escape a protective award for inadequate consultation if they can point to “special circumstances” that made it “not reasonably practicable” to consult, provided they can show that they did all that was reasonably practicable to consult given those circumstances. The question what amounts to “special circumstances” is explored on page 414 of Chapter 11: Collective consultation. The cases and principles set out in Chapter 11 apply equally to protective awards in the context of TUPE.