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 e-mail.

2013 Autumn Statement:

• The Chancellor of the Exchequer has delivered the 2013 Autumn Statement, which includes a number of initiatives designed to promote growth in local areas, such as raising the borrowing limit on local authorities’ housing revenue accounts and plans to simply the planning system.

Central government:

• The NAO has published a report, Funding and structures for local economic growth, evaluating the contribution of LEPS and initiatives to promote economic growth in local areas.
• The government has published a number of reports assessing central government’s progress against actions under the Digital Strategy.
• Eurostat has launched a public consultation on future European Public Sector Accounting Standard (EPSAS) governance principles and structures.
• The Cabinet Office has launched a consultation on amending and extending the powers of the Charity Commission to tackle abuse and mismanagement in charities.

Civil litigation:

• The official opening hours of the Royal Courts of Justice and the Registries of the Supreme Court and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council over the 2013 Christmas and New Year vacation period have been announced.

Education and social services:

• The High Court has held that a local authority had the power to provide services to a child in need under section 17(1) of the Children Act 1989, even when that child was travelling outside the boundary of the authority (R(J(W)) v Worcestershire County Council and The Equality and Human Rights Commission).
• The county court has given parties a costs warning to deter similar repeated litigation under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 (EG v JG).
• The Transfer of Functions Concerning School Lunches etc (England) (Amendment) Order 2013 has been laid before Parliament, which clarifies the procedures for the transfer of responsibility for school lunch provision from local authorities to maintained schools.
• The government has announced a new legal duty on local authorities to provide financial support for every young person who wants to stay with their foster parents until their 21st birthday.
• The MoJ has published a consultation on proposals for the reform of civil court fees.

Employment:

• The government has published its response to the consultation on how the proposed statutory shared parental leave and pay system should work.
• Acas has launched a consultation on amendments to the wording of its Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures that deal with the right to be accompanied at discipline and grievance hearings.

Environment:

• The CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (Allocation of Allowances for Payment) Regulations 2013 have been laid before Parliament.
• Defra and the WG have launched a consultation on waste transfer notes and other minor changes to the transport of waste.

FOI and data protection:

• The government has published an order commencing the Defamation Act 2013 on 1 January 2014, and has also published the final version of the Defamation (Operators of Websites) Regulations 2013.
• The FTT(IR) has:
  • allowed an appeal by a council against the ICO’s decision that confidential tender documents should be disclosed for reasons in the public interest (Telford & Wrekin Council v Information Commissioner and another); and
  • ordered the ICO to disclose the names of the journalists who had instructed private investigators involved in the illegal trade of personal information (Christopher Colenso-Dunne v Information Commissioner).
• The ICO has:
  • updated its guidance on the fees that may be charged for applications under FOIA, to address the publication of datasets; and
  • published an ICO definition document for Northern Ireland Education and Library Boards.

Housing:

• The Court of Appeal has:
  • allowed a council to re-make its decision on whether an applicant was homeless by investigating untested facts (Purewal v Ealing Council).
  • allowed an appeal against a county court’s refusal to grant a housing association anti-social behaviour injunctions against one of their assured tenants on the ground that the Equality Act 2010 applied (Swan Housing Association Ltd v Gill).
• The High Court has ruled that a council could reasonably decide that a social housing claimant was no longer a “priority” homeseeker after she moved into private housing in reliance on the council’s assurance that she would stay in a priority category (R (Alansi) v London Borough of Newham).

Pensions:

• The Pensions Ombudsman has determined that a member whose pensionable earnings should have been capped under the NHS Pension Scheme for several years suffered only non-financial injustice because her overpaid contributions were refunded by NHS Pensions (Fairfield (PO-762)).
• The DH has issued a consultation document and explanatory notes alongside the draft National Health Service Pension Scheme (Amendment) Regulations 2014.
• The Pensions Regulator is consulting on a revised code of practice for defined benefit (DB) scheme funding, a new DB regulatory strategy and a revised DB funding policy.

Property and planning:

• The government published its National Infrastructure Plan 2013, setting out its long term infrastructure plans for the UK.
• The DCLG has published a discussion document on changes to the planning regime for nationally significant infrastructure projects.
• The Land Registry has published new Practice Guide 14A – Charitable incorporated associations and updated Practice Guide 8 – Execution of deeds.
• The DfT has published a consultation on the draft National Networks National Policy Statement and accompanying documents.
• The WG has published a consultation paper and draft Bill setting out proposals to reform planning laws in Wales.

Public procurement:

• The ECJ has given a preliminary ruling on whether it is possible for a contracting authority to negotiate on tenders that do not comply with the mandatory requirements of the technical specifications of the contract (Nordecon AS, Ramboll Eesti AS v Rahandusministeerium).
• The European Ombudsman has published a decision on a complaint alleging that a request by the European Commission to extend the validity of tenders after the relevant deadline had expired was unlawful.
• The government has announced the decisions it has taken following its consultation on making public sector procurement more accessible to SMEs.

Regulation and enforcement:

• The DCLG has announced parking reforms and a consultation on parking enforcement with the aim of boosting local high street trade.
• The government has published A progress report on implementation of health and safety reforms as part of its review of the UK’s health and safety laws.