Practical Law

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.

Looking forward to 2015:

• Practitioners interested in upcoming public sector developments in 2015 may be interested in our summary of these developments, with links to relevant Practical Law coverage and materials.

Civil litigation:

• The Court of Appeal has refused permission for a second appeal where the relevant issue was whether a defendant was required to be sued in Scotland (where she lived and was domiciled) when the claim against her was a claim for payment of fees by an English firm of solicitors (Hewitsons LLP v Wood).
• The High Court has:
  • confirmed that an application for relief from sanctions does not need to be made formally in writing (Cutler v Barnet London Borough Council); and
  • ordered payment on account of costs of 90% of the claimant’s approved costs budget (Thomas Pink Ltd v Victoria’s Secret UK Ltd).
• The Technology and Construction Solicitors’ Association, Technology and Construction Bar Association and the Society of Computers and the Law have updated their e-disclosure protocol and its accompanying guidance.

Education and children’s services:

• The Upper Tribunal has allowed an appeal against a decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber), concerning a pupil at a selective grammar school who required certain adjustments to be made for her in public exams (PP and SP v Trustees of Leicester Grammar School (SEN)).
• The Local Government Ombudsman has published a report on its investigation into a complaint against Birmingham City Council after it changed its school transport policy.
• The Family Court has:
  • held that an 11 year old Lithuanian child who had been living in England for seven months was not habitually resident in England given her lack of integration into social and family life (Re D (Habitual Residence)); and
  • criticised a local authority for a five year delay in making an application to revoke a placement order to revive a care order (Re R (Revocation of Placement order: Unacceptable delay)).

Employment and pensions:

• The draft Protected Disclosures (Extension of Meaning of Worker) Order 2015 has been laid before Parliament.
• The EAT has:
  • held that an employment tribunal was entitled to find that an employer’s duty to make reasonable adjustments was not triggered where a sick employee had not given any sign that she would be returning to work (Doran v Department for Work and Pensions); and
  • upheld a finding that two delivery drivers were unfairly dismissed when their employment was terminated, purportedly by reason of redundancy, following a change to their terms and conditions (EXOL Lubricants Ltd v Birch and another).
• The DWP has published guidance for GPs, employers and employees on the new Fit for Work service.
• BIS has published a revised Employers’ Technical Guide to Shared Parental Leave and Pay.
• The Public Service Pensions Act 2013 (Commencement No 6, Saving Provision and Amendment) Order 2015 has been made and brings into force several provisions of the Public Service Pensions Act from 1 April 2015.
• The High Court has partially allowed an appeal against a determination of the Deputy Pensions Ombudsman that had rejected a complaint by a member of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme about the recovery of overpaid pension instalments dating back to 2002 (Webber v Department for Education).

Environment:

• The DCLG has published its response to its technical consultation on raising environmental impact assessment (EIA) thresholds to reduce the number of development proposals requiring an EIA screening.

FOI and EIR:

• The FTT(IR), in three related appeals, has considered whether the Tate Gallery was exempt from disclosing certain information concerning sponsorship under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Brendan Montague v Information Commissioner (no 1) and (no 2), and The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery v Information Commissioner).
• The DCLG has given notice of an opportunity to opt out of having non-domestic Energy Performance Certificate records published.

Local government:

• The Local Government (Electronic Communications) (England) Order 2015 will come into force on 30 January 2015.
• The Accounts and Audit (Wales) Regulations 2014 will come into force on 31 March 2015.
• The NAO has published a draft Code of Audit Practice following the conclusion of its consultation process.
• The government has published its response to the comments received as part of its consultation on using a legislative reform order to make it easier to set up town and parish councils.

Property and planning:

• The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has decided that a landlord, in a claim for collective enfranchisement by its tenants, was not entitled to require a leaseback of a unit that did not exist at the relevant date (Merie Bin Mahfouz Company (UK) Ltd v Barrie House (Freehold) Ltd).
• BIS has published the Ninth Statement of New Regulation, setting out the legislation that each government department plans to introduce, repeal or consolidate between 1 January and 30 June 2015. The statement contains measures likely to be of interest to property, planning and agricultural practitioners.
• The government has announced a new Planning Enforcement Fund to assist councils with the legal costs of taking planning enforcement action.
• The DCLG has:
  • updated its guidance on party walls and the Party Wall etc. Act 1996; and
  • published responses to the part of a technical consultation on planning that dealt with making changes to development consent orders, as well as to the deemed discharge of planning conditions aspect of the same technical consultation.
• The HSE has published the draft Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015.

Public procurement:

• The ECJ has handed down its ruling on a preliminary reference from the Court of Appeal (England and Wales) on whether a contested London bus lane policy adopted by Transport for London comes within the concept of “state aid” under Article 107(1) of the TFEU (R (Eventech Ltd) v The Parking Adjudicator).
• The General Court has handed down a judgment in an appeal against a decision of the European Parliament in a tender for the procurement of Greek translation services (Veloss International SA and Attimedia SA v European Commission).
• The Cabinet Office has published a policy statement, draft regulations and responses to a consultation on the proposed reforms to public procurement contained in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill.
• The Crown Commercial Service has published an updated list of its framework agreements.

 Regulation and enforcement:

• Defra has published guidance for parish councils on changing or revoking dog control orders.