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 Court of Protection has decided 18 applications made by the Public Guardian to sever faulty provisions in lasting powers of attorney which included consideration of the appointment of joint and several attorneys and the power to make gifts to third parties (The Public Guardian’s Severance Applications).
• The Care Quality Commission has published a report with the findings from its comprehensive programme of adult social care inspections.

Central government:

• Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has given a speech at the European Economic and Social Committee on Brexit and the Article 50 negotiations.

Children’s services:

• The Care Planning and Case Review (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Wales) Regulations 2017 have been made and will come into force on 23 July 2017. They contain amendments listing the considerations that reviewers must have regard to, when reviewing plans for a child whose family is receiving support from an integrated family support team.
• The High Court has deemed lawful a local authority’s policy of withdrawing its services immediately after informing a young person of the result of its age assessment and the summary reasons for the assessment (KA and another v London Borough of Croydon).
• The President of the Family Division has expressed his support for settlement conferences and published information about the settlement conferences pilot, which includes judicial training materials and an information leaflet for parties.
• CAFCASS has published guidance on how CAFCASS professional time can best be used to benefit children in public and private children law matters.
• The Family Procedure Rule Committee has issued amended versions of the Application form for an adoption order (Form A58) and the supporting notes (A58 Notes).

Civil litigation:

• The Tribunal Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2017 will come into force on 28 July 2017. The Rules amend the rules of procedure that apply to certain chambers of the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal to reflect recent changes in primary legislation.
• The Court of Appeal has allowed a second appeal against a decision to grant summary judgment for a defendant, following an unsuccessful application by the claimant to adjourn a trial on medical grounds and the claimant’s non-attendance at trial (Emojevbe v Secretary of State for Transport).
• The High Court has:
  • refused a claimant’s application under CPR 19.2(2) to add the defendant third party to proceedings after default judgment had been given against the defendant (Billington v Davies and others); and
  • considered what constituted a “significant development” to permit revisions to a budget previously limited to court fees under CPR 3.14 (Asghar and another v Bhatti and another).
• The European Parliament has adopted a report prepared by its Committee on Legal Affairs for a proposal for a directive on common minimum standards of civil procedure in the EU.

Commercial:

• The Scottish Law Commission has issued a discussion paper on remedies for breach of contract.

Education:

• The Department for Education has published updated advice for schools, parents and carers on preventing and tackling bullying, including cyberbullying.
• The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper discussing recent policy developments relating to grammar schools in England.

Employment and pensions:

• The Court of Appeal has held that employment tribunals in England and Wales must apply the 10% Simmons v Castle uplift to discrimination compensation for injury to feelings and psychiatric injury (Pereira de Souza v Vinci Construction UK Ltd).
• The EAT has upheld an employment tribunal’s decision that it did not have jurisdiction to accept a claim where the name of the prospective respondent on the EC certificate differed to the name of the respondent on the ET1 (Giny v SNA Transport Limited).
• The closing date for responses to the consultation addressing caste discrimination in the UK has been extended by 8 weeks due to the general election. It will now close on 18 September 2017.

Environment:

• The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published its final guideline, Air pollution: outdoor air quality and health.

FOI and data protection:

• The Information Commissioner’s Office has:
  • published its first International Strategy to help it meet oversees data protection challenges; and
  • updated its guide to data protection and CCTV code of practice to reflect Court of Appeal judgments relating to data subject access requests.

Health:

• The National Audit Office has published the findings of its investigation into NHS continuing healthcare funding.
• The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper providing a review of the structure of the NHS in England.

Housing:

• The Court of Appeal has upheld the decision of a reviewing officer of the London Borough of Hackney who carried out a review under section 202 of the Housing Act 1996 (HA 1996), that confirmed a previous assessment of intentional homelessness made by another officer of the council under section 184 of the HA 1996 (Alfonso da Trindade v London Borough of Hackney).
• The Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee of the National Assembly for Wales has published a report on the Abolition of the Right to Buy and Associated Rights (Wales) Bill.
• The House of Commons Library has published briefing papers:
  • providing background information on the increase in the number of homeless households placed in temporary accommodation by English local authorities; and
  • discussing the introduction of a voluntary Right to Buy for housing association tenants in England.

Local government law:

• The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has assessed the compensation payable for the extinguishment of a small family business whose premises were acquired for a town centre redevelopment scheme (Behic and others v Northumberland County Council).
• The National Audit Office has published a report assessing the effectiveness and future of combined authorities.
• The House of Commons library has published a briefing paper providing an overview of the structure of combined authorities.
• The Chief Executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and the Director of the British Standards Institute have given evidence before the House of Lords EU Justice Sub-Committee on consumer protection rights post-Brexit and the impact on their organisations and consumers.
• The Charity Commission has publicised, for the first time, an official warning issued to a charity under the regulator’s new power in section 75A of the Charities Act 2011.

Property and planning:

• The Court of Appeal has held that in order for an appellant to make out the statutory defence under section 179(3) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, she needed to demonstrate that she had done everything that she could be expected to do to secure compliance with the enforcement notice (Mirza v London Borough of Newham).
• The government has published a consultation on proposals to reduce planning restrictions along the high speed rail route between London St Pancras and the Channel Tunnel (HS1). The consultation closes on 13 August 2017.

Public procurement and state aid:

• The High Court issued an ex tempore interim ruling ordering the disclosure of documents in a procurement dispute (Alstom Transport UK Ltd v London Underground Ltd and another).
• A European Commission notice on state aid recovery interest rates and reference/discount rates for all 28 EU member states applicable from 1 August 2017 has been published in the Official Journal.