How enforceable is all of this?

Good question, Rob, because of course the seller's entitled to protect the value in the business they've just paid for, but there are quite a few parameters around enforceability of restrictive covenants and that's not guaranteed.

The main reason for that is that the starting points that the courts in the UK have is that a covenant of this nature is in restraint of trade, and that's against public policy.

So in order to be able to enforce a restriction, the party that wants the protection really needs to be able to demonstrate that it goes no further than is absolutely necessary to protect a legitimate business interest.

In the context of a business sale, that would be protecting the goodwill in the business.

When you're looking at the enforceability of covenants, there are a number of things that the courts will take into account.

But I guess the key things are the context.

Helena, are there any changes on the horizon in this field?