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 Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 have been made and came into force on 10 April 2017.
• The Revised Code of Practice on the exercise of social services functions in relation to Part 4 (direct payments and choice of accommodation) and Part 5 (charging and financial assessment) of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 (Appointed Day) (Wales) Order 2017 has been made.
• The Court of Appeal has awarded a claimant costs after a successful appeal against her committal for breach of a welfare order (MM and TK v Devon County Council).
• The Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health have published a policy framework for the implementation of the Better Care Fund in 2017-19 and proposals for further integration of health and social care by 2020.

Children’s services:

• The Court of Appeal has given procedural guidance that bundles prepared for an adjourned application for permission to appeal must contain the transcript of the judgment adjourning the application and that the parties should have considered the judgment before the adjourned hearing (Re B (Child)).

Employment and pensions:

• The Court of Appeal has held that an employment tribunal was entitled to find that an employee’s poor attitude to organisational change had, on the facts, amounted to gross misconduct and a repudiatory breach of contract (Adeshina v St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Others).

Environment:

• The Planning (Hazardous Substances) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 have been made and will come into force on 5 May 2017.
• The ECJ has held that waste management fees can be based on estimated waste and can finance recycling infrastructure (VG Cistoca v Vladika).
• The European Commission has published a report on the implementation of the Environmental Noise Directive in accordance with Article 11 of Directive 2002/49/EC.

FOI and data protection:

• The Article 29 Working Party has published:
  • guidelines on Data Protection Impact Assessments for public consultation and final guidelines on data protection officers, data portability and identifying a lead supervisory authority under the General Data Protection Regulation; and
  • an opinion on the draft E-Privacy Regulation.
• The government has launched a call for views on national law derogations from the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
• The ICO has appointed a new Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Deputy Commissioner.

Health:

• The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper on NHS complaints procedures in England.

Local government law:

• The Cabinet Office has published a report on the post implementation review of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) Regulations 2005.
• The Department for Communities and Local Government has published a consultation on preserving the free use of public parks.
• The Local Government Information Unit has published an introductory guide to crowdfunding for local authorities.

Property and planning:

• The Town and Country Planning (Enforcement Notice and Appeals) (Wales) Regulations 2017 have been made and will come into force on 5 May 2017.
• The Town and Country Planning (Trees) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2017 have been made and will come into force on 5 May 2017.
• The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2017 have been made and will come into force on 5 May 2017.
• The Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 have been made and will come into force on 5 May 2017.
• The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (Wales) (Amendment) Order 2017 has been made and will come into force in Wales on 5 May 2017.
• The Court of Appeal has considered the extent of a right of way that was granted so far as it was “necessary” to gain access to the property (Shaw v Grouby and another).
• The High Court has:
  • dismissed two applications by protestors for statutory review, under section 288 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, of the planning permissions granted by the Secretary of State to Cuadrilla to commence exploratory and monitoring shale gas fracking operations at its Preston New Road and Roseacre sites in Lancashire (R (Preston New Road Action Group and others) v Secretary of State and others); and
  • decided that a letter giving the landlord notice of an offer to sell the property to the landlord was not sufficient to comply with the terms of the lease, which envisaged that a formal option agreement would be granted (TCG Pubs Ltd and another v The Art or Mystery of the Girdlers of London).

Public procurement:

• The Supreme Court has held that procurement damages are confined to serious breaches (Nuclear Decommissioning Authority v EnergySolutions EU Ltd).

Regulation and enforcement:

• The Environment Agency has announced that a waste site operator has been sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to breaching the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 in the Crown Court.