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.

Civil litigation:

• The following statutory instruments have been published and will come into force in April 2014:
  • the Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2014, along with the accompanying making document (which details changes to practice directions); and
  • the Civil Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2014, which implement the 70th CPR update.
• The MoJ has published a correction to the 69th CPR update and the County Court Jurisdiction Order 2014.
• The Court of Appeal has considered:
  • an application for permission for a second appeal (Brotherston v Commissioner for HM Revenue & Customs); and
  • the issue of damages being an adequate remedy in cases where there is contractual provision limiting damages below what might have been awarded in law (AB v CD).

Construction:

• The TCC has held that a:
  • dispute had crystallised but that the adjudicator did not have jurisdiction to determine whether any payment should be made to the referring party’s assignee (Devon County Council v Celtic Composting Systems Ltd); and
  • building contractor’s cause of action in tort against its sub-contractors accrued on or before practical completion and that a failed assignment did not create a trust for the benefit of the putative assignee (Co-Operative Group Ltd v Birse Developments Ltd and others).

Education and children’s services:

• The DfE has published:
  • updated non-statutory departmental advice on the Academy/free school presumption;
  • a consultation on revised and simplified school food standards in England; and
  • a consultation on amendments to the statutory guidance and regulations about adoption.
• The Education Funding Agency has published property information notes and forms for use by Academies in various property transactions.

Employment and pensions:

• The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (Commencement No 6, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2014 has been made, which abolishes discrimination questionnaires with effect from 6 April 2014.
• BIS is consulting on draft regulations dealing with shared parental leave and pay for parents of children expected to be born or placed for adoption on or after 5 April 2015.
• The EAT has considered whether part-time fee-paid judges were entitled to pensions calculated from the start of their service, or only from the date on which the Part-Time Workers Directive should have been transposed into UK law (Ministry of Justice v O’Brien).
• The DfE has published its consultation response on proposals for the application of new Fair Deal arrangements to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.

Environment:

• The ECJ has found that the costs regime in the UK did not properly implement the requirement in the Aarhus Convention that access to environmental justice must not be prohibitively expensive (European Commission v United Kingdom).
• BIS has issued an updated code of practice for the collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) from designated collection facilities.
• Defra has published updated noise action plans on large urban areas, roads and railways for England.
• There have been reports in the press that the Environment Agency will no longer comment on biodiversity in planning applications.

FOI and data protection:

• The FTT(IR) has ruled that a report of an investigation into complaints about staff at a Pupil Referral Unit should not be published under FOIA (Hepple v Information Commissioner and another).
• The ICO has:
  • published new guidance and the results of a roundtable discussion on contractor transparency.
  • updated its subject access code of practice.

Housing:

• The Allocation of Housing and Homelessness (Eligibility) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 have been laid before Parliament and will come into force on 31 March 2014.
• The Court of Appeal has ruled that a local housing authority had not discharged its housing duty where the reviewing officer had not served a “minded to find” notice before making her decision (Mohamoud v Birmingham City Council).

Local government:

• The High Court has ruled that comments in support of a planning application made by a member of a council’s executive to committee members did not invalidate the council’s decision to allow the application (Bishop Stortford Civic Federation v East Hertfordshire District Council and others).
• The government has published its response to the consultation on proposed draft secondary legislation to give effect to provisions in the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 and a consultation on a draft transparency code for parish councils with a turnover not exceeding £25,000.

Property and planning:

• The Mobile Homes (Site Licensing) (England) Regulations 2014 have been made and will come into force on 1 April 2014.
• The DCLG has launched its online streamlined planning practice guidance and announced reforms that will provide greater flexibility to changes of use.

Public procurement and state aid:

• The Council Decision of 2 December 2013 on the conclusion of the Protocol Amending the WTO Government Procurement Agreement has been published in the Official Journal.
• The European Parliament has adopted, with a substantial majority, the European Commission’s proposed directive on e-invoicing in public procurement.
• The Danish Complaints Board for Public Procurement has declared a contract for the combustion of rubbish ineffective.
• The European Commission has concluded that public funding for the construction of new cruise terminal in Liverpool is compatible with EU state aid rules.
• The DfT has issued a consultation on the government’s proposals for the implementation of recommendations made by the Competition Commission to address adverse effects on competition identified in the local bus market.