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 Local Government email.

Adult social services:

• The Social Care Wales (Extension of Meaning of “Social Care Worker”) Regulations 2016, which apply only to Wales, have been made and will come into force on 3 April 2017.

Central government:

• HM Treasury has announced that the Chancellor of the Exchequer will deliver the spring 2017 Budget on Wednesday 8 March 2017.
• Following consideration of the August 2016 report on electoral fraud ‘Securing the Ballot’, the government has announced a number of measures to combat electoral fraud, including trialing the use of ID in polling stations across England and Wales.
• HM Treasury and the Welsh government have published the agreement between the governments of Wales and the United Kingdom on the Welsh government’s fiscal framework.
• The House of Commons Justice Committee has heard from experts in commercial law on the effect of Brexit for civil justice.
• The House of Commons Treasury Committee has released an external review led by Andrew Green QC relating to Maxwellisation.
• The National Infrastructure Commission has published a discussion paper, ‘The impact of population change and demography on future infrastructure demand’, which will be used to inform its National Infrastructure Assessment.

Children’s services:

• The Scottish Ministers have issued two sets of guidance advising Scottish public authorities on the exercise of certain functions under the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014.

Civil litigation:

• On appeal the High Court has held that the judge below had been correct not to recuse himself, despite having used colourful language to describe the appellant and betraying irritation with the appellant (Al Zawawi v Newson-Smith).
• TheCityUK has published a report, ‘The Impact of Brexit on the UK-based legal services sector’, highlighting the importance of ensuring the competitiveness of UK legal services following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

Employment and pensions:

• The EAT has:
  • upheld a tribunal’s decision that an employee was not disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 (Herry v Dudley Metropolitan Council and Herry v Dudley Metropolitan Council and Governing Body of Hillcrest School);
  • upheld an employment tribunal’s decision that an employer committed discrimination arising from disability (City of York Council v Grosset); and
  • held that a tribunal erred in ordering an employee should be re-engaged in circumstances where there has been a purported breakdown in trust and confidence between employer and employee (United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust v Farren).
• The Government has responded to the findings of the Women and Equalities Select Committee regarding the experiences of Muslims in obtaining and during employment.

Environment:

• The High Court has rejected an application by Friends of the Earth for judicial review of the minerals permission for shale gas (fracking) to be carried out in Ryedale, North Yorkshire (R (Friends of the Earth Ltd and another) v North Yorkshire County Council and another).

FOI and data protection:

• The European Court of Justice has ruled that the general and indiscriminate retention of data is incompatible with the E-Privacy Directive (2002/58/EC) read in the light of the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Tele2 Sverige AB v Post- och telestyrelsen and Secretary of State for the Home Department v Tom Watson and others).

Housing:

• The draft Housing and Planning Act 2016 (Permission in Principle etc) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) Regulations 2017 have been published and laid before Parliament for approval by resolution of each House.
• The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper on disabled facilities grants for home adaptations.

Local government law:

• The High Court has quashed a decision of a parish council to impose sanctions on a claimant councillor, and outlined the respective roles of parish councils and their principal authorities under the Localism Act 2011 standards and conduct regime (John Taylor v Honiton Town Council).
• The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper on local road maintenance, repairs and street works in England, including analysis of the framework in which local authorities maintain and repair the road network.

Property and planning:

• The High Court has held that the grant of a right of way was effective where the owners of the land sold it to a buyer and then accidentally granted a right of way over it in favour of a third party (Baker v Craggs).

Public procurement:

• The ECJ has ruled that the transfer of functions by public authorities to an autonomous SPV governed by public law is not a public contract (Remondis GmbH & amp, Co. KG Region Nord v Region Hannover and others).