REUTERS | Yuriko Nakao
23/10/2014

In brief for week ending 22 October 2014

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 email.

Central government:

  • The High Court has refused an application for further disclosure of a defendants’ case where the closed material procedure was being used (CF v Ministry of Defence and others).

Civil litigation:

  • The Commercial Court has allowed an application to set aside an order under CPR 23.11(2) (power to re-list an application where the defendant fails to attend a hearing) but ordered the defendants to pay a sum into court under CPR 3.1(5) in the light of their non-compliance with court orders (Carlton Advisory Services and others v Dorchester Holding Ltd).
  • The TCC has rejected an application for declaratory relief, finding that an adjudicator made the right decision about his jurisdiction (Horne v Magna Design Building Ltd).

Education and social services:

  • The Children and Families Act 2014 (Commencement No 5 and Transitional Provision) Order 2014 brought section 11 of the Children and Families Act 2014 into force on 22 October 2014.
  • The Court of Appeal has issued obiter guidance emphasising the importance of obtaining a transcript or at least an agreed note in appeal hearings (Re W (Children)).
  • The High Court has:
  • The Court of Protection has issued a judgment supplementing an earlier preliminary ruling in order to devise a standardised, streamlined process for dealing with deprivation of liberty cases in a timely and fair way (Re X and others (Deprivation of Liberty) (Number 2) and Re X and others (Deprivation of Liberty)).
  • The President of the Family Division has issued practice guidance about the duration of without notice injunctive orders made by the Family Court or the Family Division.
  • A team from the Family Division has published a third tranche of draft standard orders which have been circulated for comment, following the President of the Family Division’s plan to standardise orders in family proceedings.

Employment and pensions:

  • The High Court has held that a local authority was entitled to suspend a teacher who had been working as a union representative on secondment from a school for the previous 14 years (Davies v London Borough of Haringey).
  • The EAT has overturned an employment tribunal’s assessment of a 20% Polkey deduction in respect of two employees who were found to have been unfairly dismissed as a result of a defective redundancy procedure (Contract Bottling Ltd v Cave and another).
  • The government has published new draft regulations relating to family-friendly rights, and Acas has published a guide for navigating the new right to shared parental leave.
  • The Carr review into so-called “extreme tactics” in industrial disputes has been published.
  • The Pensions Ombudsman has held that an employing authority under the Local Government Pension Scheme was wrong to assume a member’s wishes had changed after nomination (Determination in a complaint by Mr and Mrs A S McNee (PO-2790/PO-4183)).

Environment:

  • The government has added draft provisions to the Infrastructure Bill 2014-15 to introduce a regime for underground access for drilling for gas (including shale gas using fracking), oil or geothermal energy that would otherwise amount to a trespass.
  • The DCLG has published the national planning policy for waste for England.
  • The Welsh Government has launched a call for evidence on the development of an energy efficiency strategy for Wales.

FOI and data protection:

  • The ICO has published an updated code of practice for CCTV and other types of surveillance cameras.

Housing:

Local government:

Property and planning:

  • The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (Wales) (No 2) Order 2014 and the Town and Country Planning (Compensation) (Wales) (No 2) Regulations 2014 will come into force on 7 November 2014.
  • The Land Registry has published a new practice guide to restrictions on registered leasehold properties and what to do when complying with a restriction causes difficulties.

Public procurement and state aid:

  • The General Court has dismissed an appeal by a Greek company about a claim for compensation for harm to its professional reputation (Evropaïki Dynamiki v Commission).
  • The Scottish Court of Session has lifted a prohibition on entering into a framework agreement for the supply of street lighting materials (Street Lighting Suppliers & Co Ltd v Scotland Excel and Renfrewshire Council).
  • The European Commission has sent reasoned opinions to Italy alleging various breaches of the EU public procurement rules. The Commission was concerned about the award of waste management services contracts by two municipalities without a competitive tendering procedure.
  • The Cabinet Office has issued a consultation on proposed reforms to public procurement in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill.
  • The European Commission has decided under the state aid rules to approve the creation by the UK of a British Business Bank, which will manage programmes to improve SME access to finance.

Regulation and enforcement:

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