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.

Central government:

• A new Private Member’s Bill has been introduced that will allow MPs to waive the defence of parliamentary privilege so that they can bring proceedings for libel.
• The European Commission has released its 2014 Convergence Report, which assesses eight member states’ readiness to join the single currency.

Civil litigation:

• The Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (No 4) Regulations 2014 come into force on 31 July 2014.
• The High Court has:
  • refused to grant a claimant relief from sanction for failing to pay hearing and application fees by the time specified in an unless order (Decadent Vapours Ltd v Bevan and others);
  • considered the court’s jurisdiction to commit for breach of a solicitor’s undertaking other than one made to the court (Coll v Floreat Merchant Banking Ltd and others); and
  • considered the meaning of “appropriate deduction” when refusing contractor’s right to remedy defects in the recitification period clause of the JCT Intermediate Building Contract (Mul v Hutton Construction Ltd).
• The First-tier Tribunal (Tax) has struck out an appeal by the Suffolk Constabulary to recover VAT charged on police cars purchased, because it did not have jurisdiction under the Value Added Tax Act 1994 (Suffolk Constabulary v HMRC).

Education and social services:

• The DH has published a consultation on draft regulations and guidance to implement the measures on care and support under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014.
• The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 have been laid before Parliament.
• The High Court has given guidance about the steps to be taken when a local authority seeks to remove a child who is living at home with his parents under a care order (A Father v SBC and others).
• The government has published its response to the consultation, Adoption: getting it right, making it work.

Employment and pensions:

• The Employment Practices Bill 2014-15 has had its first reading in the House of Lords.
• The Flexible Working Regulations 2014 have been laid before Parliament and will come into force on 30 June 2014.
• HMRC has published further guidance to intermediaries, end clients and workers on how the new agency rules for employment businesess and other intermediaries interact with the Construction Industry Scheme and IR35.

Environment:

• The government has laid the Infrastructure Bill 2014-15 before Parliament, which contains provisions relevant to environmental practitioners, including introduction of species control orders (SCOs).
• The Renewable Heat Incentive (Amendment) Regulations 2014 came into force on 28 May 2014.
• The NAO has published a briefing to review the government’s progress on the smart meter roll-out programme.

Equality and human rights:

• The EHRC has published:
  • updated guidance for public bodies on the Human Rights Act 1998; and
  • a series of case studies and resources on the public sector equality duty.

FOI and data protection:

• The FTT(IR) has:
  • ruled that it could not remit a FOIA decision notice back to the IC (Clucas v Information Commissioner); and
  • ordered the CPS to disclose information relating to its decision not to prosecute historic child offences (Corke v Information Commissioner).
• The intellectual property adviser to the government has published a report on search engines and piracy.

Housing:

• The Housing (Right to Buy) (Limit on Discount) (England) Order 2014 has been laid before Parliament and comes into force on 21 July 2014.

Property and planning:

• The Infrastructure Bill 2014-15 has been introduced into the House of Lords, which contains several points of interest for property practitioners.
• The DCLG has announced that it intends to end forty year old restrictions which effectively prevent Londoners from renting out their homes on a short term basis.

Public procurement and state aid:

• BIS has launched “Cyber Essentials“, its cybersecurity certification scheme.
• The European Commission has published a staff working document setting out guidance on a common methodology for state aid evaluation.

Regulation and enforcement:

• The government has published two draft statutory instruments that will increase the levels of fines that can be levied in magistrates’ courts.