As we head into January and Christmas cheer is becoming but a distant memory, we thought that now would be a good time to reflect on 2013 and what it meant for Practical Law Public Sector and its subscribers.
In this post we take a look at our most popular content of 2013 and link to pieces looking at what we can expect in 2014 in a number of areas of public sector law.
As with previous years, a look at the content we have published that has been read the most by our subscribers, it is clear that the following areas are of particular interest to our subscribers:
- Employment issues, including TUPE.
- Freedom of information.
- Academies and other education issues.
- Shared services and partnership working.
- Public procurement issues.
- Judical review.
- Housing and anti-social behaviour.
Delving a little deeper, we can reveal that Practical Law Public Sector’s top five legal updates for 2013 were:
- Government announces outcome of consultation on judicial review.
- Council of the EU publishes texts of three new procurement directives.
- Binding guidance on vexatious and manifestly unreasonable requests (Upper Tribunal).
- Modernisation of EU procurement rules delayed to early 2014.
- Advice on Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 published for commissioners and procurers.
In addition to the updates above, our Looking forward to 2013 piece was extremely popular. Wacth out for the 2014 version, which will be published shortly.
Practical Law Public Sector editors also dealt with over 1,000 feedback queries from our subscribers on issues ranging from planning, procurement, commercial agreements, shared services and TUPE to judicial review and housing. Examples of the type of questions we have answered include:
- What is the legal status of schools and how do they enter into contracts?
- Can a contracting authority invite only the top scoring bidders in a tender process to interview or must it invite all bidders?
- On a disposal of land is a local authority obliged to take the highest price offered?
- How do I decide if I have to competitively tender a Part B services contract?
Our top ten maintained resources in 2013 were:
- Public procurement in the UK.
- Freedom of information.
- Ask the team: public procurement FAQs.
- Public procurement case tracker.
- An introduction to judicial review.
- A practical guide to judicial review.
- New remedies in public procurement law.
- Part B, below thresholds and other procurements outside the regulations.
- Freedom of information: a quick guide.
- Local government: statutory powers and duties and their proper exercise.
Much of our content is written following requests from subscribers, if there are any resources that you would particularly like Practical Law Public Sector to produce please e-mail us using the Ask system. For a full list of the content that we are planning to produce in 2014, see our provisional publishing schedule.
For a round-up of the legal developments over the last year and a look forward to 2014 in relation to particular topics, see:
- Public procurement: review of 2013 and preview of 2014.
- Local government: review of 2013 and preview of 2014.
- Education: review of 2013 and preview of 2014.
- Freedom of information and data protection: review of 2013 and preview of 2014.
- Housing law: review of 2013 and preview of 2014.
It is already clear that 2014 sees public sector organisations having to deal with significant changes in the law (when is it any different!) and we look forward to helping our subscribers stay in touch with the key developments that they need to be aware of and providing guidance on how to deliver the best service possible to their employers.