Make sure that you have not missed a key development in your area of the law by reading our In brief review of the latest Practical Law Public Sector e-mail.
Central government:
- The Cabinet Office has published an updated guide to making legislation.
Civil litigation:
- The Court of Appeal has issued new guidance in the form of a three-stage test to be applied in all future applications for relief from sanctions under CPR 3.9 (Denton v TH White Ltd and another, Decadent Vapours Ltd v Bevan and others and Utilise TDS Ltd v Davies and another).
- The High Court has considered applications for the closed material procedure and for the defendant to plead openly and in detail to specific applications as required by CPR 16.5 (McGartland and another v Attorney General).
Commercial:
- The Consumer Rights Bill 2014-15 has had its second reading in the House of Lords.
Education and children’s services:
- The Local Authority (Duty to Secure Early Years Provision Free of Charge) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 have been laid before Parliament.
- The Court of Appeal has set aside child sex abuse findings of fact in private children law proceedings (J (A child)).
- The Court of Protection has held that an attorney of a lasting power who misappropriated the donor’s funds was not automatically entitled to anonymity under its practice guidance on transparency (Public Guardian v JM).
Employment and pensions:
- The Court of Appeal has barred a claimant’s second set of race discrimination claims as an abuse of process under the rule in Henderson v Henderson (Agbenowossi-Koffi v Donvand Ltd t/a Gullivers Travel Associates).
- The EAT has examined what factors are relevant when considering whether to make a costs order for the recovery of employment tribunal fees (Horizon Security Services Ltd v Ndeze and another).
- HM Courts & Tribunals Service has published a new shorter application form for fee remission with effect from 30 June 2014.
- Eight construction firms involved in the blacklisting of trade unionists and health and safety activists have set up a compensation scheme for affected workers.
- A survey by the Equal Opportunities Review has revealed that the average compensation award in discrimination cases in 2013 was the lowest it has been for ten years.
- GAD has announced major changes to its system for issuing passport certificates to contractors involved in public sector outsourcing exercises.
- The DWP has confirmed that it will introduce new record-keeping obligations on public sector pension schemes from April 2015 in regulations made under section 16 of the Public Service Pensions Act 2013.
Environment:
- The High Court has dismissed a judicial review challenge to a bird cull under the Birds and Habitats Directives (R (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) v Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs).
- HMRC has published a consultation on its proposals to introduce a loss on ignition test to determine the correct landfill tax liability of residual waste fine materials.
FOI and data protection:
- The FTT(IR) has ordered the DfE to disclose internal investigations carried out by its free schools team into Steiner schools (Department for Education v Information Commissioner and another).
- The ICO has announced that it has updated several of its definition documents.
Human rights:
- The High Court has held that the Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Act 2013 was incompatible with the claimants’ rights under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Reilly (No 2) and another v The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions).
Local government:
- The WG has introduced the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Bill 2014.
- The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Commencement No 3) Order 2014 has been made.
- The government has laid before Parliament the following draft statutory instruments:
- The government has decided to make no changes to the legal framework for civil partnerships following responses to a consultation prescribed by section 15 of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.
- The LGA has published a guide to the Care Act 2014.
Property and planning:
- The Supreme Court has held that a sewerage undertaker had an implied statutory right to discharge surface water and treated effluent into a canal without the owners’ consent (The Manchester Ship Canal Co Ltd and another v United Utilities Water plc).
- The Planning Inspectorate has given its decisions on 32 appeals by water companies against conditions in environmental permits for stand-alone discharges to groundwater and to surface waters.
Public procurement:
- The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal against a refusal to allow a claimant in a public procurement action to amend its particulars of claim (DWF LLP v Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, Acting on Behalf of the Insolvency Service).
- The High Court has ruled that a District Council breached EU law in the award of two procurement contracts by failing to advertise them publicly and that the claw back of 25% of the grant was a proportionate financial penalty (Mansfield District Council v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government).
Regulation and enforcement:
- The House of Lords Communications Committee is carrying out a short inquiry into the legal and regulatory framework around social media offences.