Newsfeed - UK Supreme Court

Cases - UK Supreme Court

AXA Insurance UK PLC and another (Appellants) v Commissioners of Inland Revenue and another (Respondents) - UK Supreme Court

The Kingdom of Bahrain (Appellant) v Shehabi and another (Respondents) - UK Supreme Court

Hopcraft and another (Respondents) v Close Brothers Limited (Appellant) - UK Supreme Court

R v BDN (Appellant) - UK Supreme Court

Johnson (Respondent) v FirstRand Bank Limited (London Branch) t/a MotoNovo Finance (Appellant) - UK Supreme Court

Boyd (Respondent) v Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (Appellant) - UK Supreme Court

People using screen readers are not able to see the layout of a form. To make forms
accessible, they must define explicit text labels for each form control. 

Usually the best solution is to use a `<label>` element. The label may be linked to 
by the form control:

```html
<label for="name">Full name</label>
<input type="name" id="name">
```

or the `<label>` can be wrapped around the form control:

```html
<label>
    Full name <input type="name">
</label>
```

Buttons are different, as their labels are specified by the code for the button, e.g.

```html
<input type="submit" value="Send message">
<button>Send message</button>
```

Alternatively ARIA attributes, such as `aria-label` may be used, but this information
will not be conveyed to visual users. For more information, see [W3C's guide to labeling controls](https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/forms/labels/).

Hidden input fields (`<input type="hidden">`) do not require labels.
Note that the `placeholder` attribute 
[should not be used as an alternative to a label](https://www.w3.org/TR/html/sec-forms.html#the-placeholder-attribute),
nor should the `title` attribute.

## Custom roles

Note that this check considers the underlying accessible role of an element, which can be 
different from the tag itself.

For example, this `<div>` has a `role` of `button`, and so is expected to have a label, like
a button would.

```html
<div role="button"></div>
```

form-control-labels

November 2025

October 2025

The Supreme Court

	Title / URL	Issues
	Newsfeed - UK Supreme Courtwww.supremecourt.uk/news	4
	Newsfeed - UK Supreme Courtsupremecourt.uk/news	4
	Cases - UK Supreme Courtsupremecourt.uk/cases	4
	Cases - UK Supreme Courtwww.supremecourt.uk/cases	4
	AXA Insurance UK PLC and another (Appellants) v Commissioners of Inland Revenue and another (Respondents) - UK Supreme Courtsupremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2025-0005	2
	The Kingdom of Bahrain (Appellant) v Shehabi and another (Respondents) - UK Supreme Courtsupremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2024-0152	2
	Hopcraft and another (Respondents) v Close Brothers Limited (Appellant) - UK Supreme Courtsupremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2024-0157	2
	R v BDN (Appellant) - UK Supreme Courtsupremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2025-0059	2
	Johnson (Respondent) v FirstRand Bank Limited (London Branch) t/a MotoNovo Finance (Appellant) - UK Supreme Courtsupremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2024-0158	2
	Boyd (Respondent) v Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (Appellant) - UK Supreme Courtsupremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2024-0135	2

Ensure form controls have labels

The Supreme Court

Where this issue has occurred