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 Department of Health has published its interim response to the Law Commission’s report on mental capacity and the deprivation of liberty.

Central government:

• The Leader of the House of Commons has announced that the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill 2017-19 will enter Committee Stage on 14 November 2017.
• The National Assembly for Wales has launched an inquiry into the powers in the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill 2017-19 to make subordinate legislation.

Children’s services:

• The High Court has:
  • reminded practitioners that they must undertake the preparation work outlined in Guidelines for Judges Meeting Children who are the Subject of Family Proceedings 2010, if the child wishes to see the judge (London Borough of Brent v D and Others); and
  • found that the applicant children had, at the time of an application for habitual residence in England, lost their habitual residence in Australia but had not acquired a habitual residence elsewhere. While unlikely that a child has no habitual residence at any point in time, it is not impossible (CL v AL).

Education:

• The Department for Education has published revised and updated statutory guidance on transport to education and training for 16 to 18-year-olds in England.

Employment and pensions:

• The Court of Appeal has held that an employee was not automatically unfairly dismissed for making protected disclosures to her line manager because the person who took the decision to dismiss her was unaware of those disclosures. A decision made by one person in ignorance of the true facts, which is manipulated by someone else who is responsible for the employee and does know the true facts, cannot be attributed to their employer (Royal Mail Ltd v Jhuti).
• The EAT has considered the liability of a person influencing a decision-maker in an alleged act of discrimination, and whether a tribunal is permitted to consider evidence put forward by the employer at the first stage of the burden of proof exercise (Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v Denby).

FOI and data protection:

• The National Audit Office has investigated a ransomware attack’s impact on the NHS and its patients; why some parts of the NHS were affected; and how the Department and NHS national bodies responded to the attack. It found that it was a relatively unsophisticated attack and could have been prevented by the NHS following basic IT security best practice.

Health:

• The British Medical Association and Health Education England (HEE) have reached an agreement that will protect junior doctors in England from detriment by training body HEE when they raise a whistleblowing concern at work. The new protections will apply retrospectively from 3 August 2016.
• The Care Quality Commission has launched a consultation on proposed changes to regulatory fees for health and adult social care providers in England.

Housing:

• The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Department for Work and Pensions have published a policy statement and two accompanying consultations on proposed new funding models for the supported housing sector.
• The DCLG has published a consultation on proposed statutory guidance for local authorities on helping victims of domestic abuse currently living in temporary accommodation to access social housing.

Local government law:

• The Local Government Association has published two new workbooks aimed at local councillors, discussing community leadership and conflict resolution.

Property and planning:

• The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2017 have been published in draft.
• The Court of Appeal has considered whether a disposal to a private registered provider of social housing was permitted under an overage agreement (Burrows Investments Ltd v Ward Homes Ltd).
• The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has published a consultation to review the implementation of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996.
• The Land Registry has amended Practice Guide 19 to clarify the need to prioritise the order of applications when registering a restriction.

Regulation and enforcement:

• The Policing and Crime Act 2017 (Commencement No 4 and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2017 will come into force on 13 November 2017, imposing an obligation on the defendant to provide the court with information confirming their name, date of birth and nationality.