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.

Central government:

• HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office have published a document setting out the government’s strategy to deliver further efficiency savings over the next Parliament.

Civil litigation:

• The High Court has:
  • held that nothing in the CPR indicates that a payment on account of costs may only be ordered if a relevant schedule of costs has been produced (Astonleigh Residential v Goldfarb);
  • clarified the effect of an order for “costs in the case” (Ontulmus and others v Collett and others); and
  • clarified that the courts will rigorously enforce compliance with Practice Directions limiting the size of court bundles and the number of authorities that may be cited (Seagrove v Sullivan).
• Minor amendments have been announced in the 77th update to the Civil Procedure Rules relating to low value personal injury claims in road traffic accidents.

Commercial:

• The Article 29 Working Party has published a working document that establishes a co-operation procedure for issuing common opinions on contractual clauses, considered to be compliant with the European Commission’s model clauses.

Education and social services:

• The Education (Provision of Full-Time Education for Excluded Pupils) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 have been made.
• The DfE has published updated statutory guidance on exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England.
• The High Court has dismissed a judicial review claim alleging that the level of support and accommodation provided to a claimant by a council was inadequate (R(C,T,M and U) v London Borough of Southwark).
• The Court of Protection has ordered that an LPA attorney who was obstructive before and during safeguarding proceedings brought by the Office of the Public Guardian must pay costs, rather than the LPA donor (Public Guardian v CT and another).

Employment and pensions:

• Seven sets of regulations relating to family-friendly rights have been made.
• The EAT has:
  • considered the extent to which the Court of Appeal’s decision in Mitchell v News Group Newspapers Ltd should extend to proceedings in the employment tribunals (Harris v Academies Enterprise Trust and others); and
  • overturned an employment tribunal’s decision to strike out a whistleblowing claim as an abuse of process and remitted the case back to a fresh tribunal (James v Public Health Wales NHS Trust).
• The Public Service Pensions (Record Keeping and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2014 have been laid before Parliament.
• The DCLG is consulting on draft regulations which will make technical amendments to the new Local Government Pension Scheme.

Environment:

• The Court of Appeal has held that CPR 45.41 is not compliant with the Aarhus Convention insofar as it is only confined to applications for judicial review, and excludes (environmental) statutory appeals and applications (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government v Venn).
• Defra has issued a content plan of its future guidance for comment. The content plan shows an outline of what Defra intends to include when it simplifies existing guidance relating to planning and development.
• The government and the Environment Agency have indicated how the £2.3 billion budget for flood defence spending will be allocated over the next six years.

FOI and data protection:

• The Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) has held that it was in the public interest for information relating to a badger culling project to be disclosed (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs v Information Commissioner and another).

Health:

• The Health Education England (Transfer of Staff, Property and Liabilities) Order 2014 has been made.

Housing:

• The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 (Commencement No 1) Order 2014 has been made, bringing into force certain provisions of the Housing (Wales) Act 2014.
• The Supreme Court has considered the basis on which statutory damages for unlawful eviction should be calculated (Loveridge v London Borough of Lambeth).
• The High Court has held that a partner of a secure tenant was not entitled to succeed to his secure tenancy on his death as she did not meet the requirement set out in section 87(b) of the Housing Act 1985 (R (Turley) V London Borough of Wandsworth and another).
• The HCA has updated its guidance on the disposal of social housing dwellings and other land.

Human rights:

• The House of Commons and House of Lords Joint Committee on Human Rights has published a report on the ratification of Protocol 15 to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Local government:

• The Business Improvement Districts (Property Owners) (England) Regulations 2014 came into force in England on 2 December 2014.
• The High Court has rejected a judicial review claim by claimants challenging the government’s decision to close the Independent Living Fund which it had retaken for a second time (R (Aspinall, Pepper and Others) v Secretary of State for Work And Pensions and another).
• The DCLG has published a consultation inviting views on the government’s intentions to modernise parish poll regulations.

Property and planning:

• The Court of Appeal has considered whether a signed undated transfer had effected an equitable assignment of a lease or, if not, whether the landlord should be estopped from contending that the tenant was still liable under the lease covenants (Lankester & Son Ltd v Robert David Rennie and Anne Rennie).
• The High Court has handed down a judgment containing a useful summary of the case law on rescission of a contract for the sale of land and a discussion on what happens to the deposit (Hardy and another v Griffiths and another).
• The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has considered whether a freeholder could agree terms for a lease extension with a tenant that would bind the intermediate landlord (Howard De Walden Estates Ltd v Accordway Ltd and another).
• The Law Commission has published its final report, Rights to Light (Law Com No 356) and draft Right to Light (Injunctions) Bill, setting out its recommendations on the reform of this area of law.
• The Welsh Government has published its updated Infrastructure Investment Plan Project Pipeline.

Public procurement:

• The President of the General Court has issued an order granting an application by an unsuccessful bidder for interim measures to suspend a European Commission decision to award a contract (Vanbreda Risk & Benefits v Commission).
• The Advocate General has handed down his opinion on an appeal by a claimant against a General Court order dismissing its action against a procurement procedure conducted in Kosovo (Elitaliana v Eulex Kosovo).