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.

Civil litigation:

• The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision to disapply the limitation period, as a claimant had failed to provide good reasons for the delays before, and after, he issued proceedings (Reed Elsevier UK Ltd (trading as LexisNexis) and another v Bewry).
• The County Court has refused to grant relief from sanctions for a claimants failure to serve a statement of costs in relation to detailed assessment proceedings (Gretton v Santander UK plc).

Commercial:

• Parliament has published a new draft of the Consumer Rights Bill, as amended in Grand Committee in the House of Lords.

Education and children’s services:

• The High Court has held that a local authority did not have the power to grant an exemption from the requirement that a teacher complete the mandatory statutory induction period, even though they had been employed at a school in the area for 11 years (Mosekari v London Borough of Lewisham).
• The DfE has published non-statutory guidance for schools (including maintained schools, academy trusts and free schools) on buying collaboratively in order to achieve efficiencies.
• The High Court has rejected a challenge to a council’s policy for calculating the amount of financial assistance to be provided under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 (Mensah v Salford City Council).
• The Family Court has made orders restraining a father from exercising parental responsibility, to safeguard his children’s emotional and physical security (Re F (Children; Contact, Name, Parental Responsibility).

Employment and pensions:

• The EAT has held that payments for overtime that a worker is required to work but which an employer is not required to offer (non-guaranteed overtime) is “normal remuneration” for the purposes of Article 7 of the Working Time Directive (Bear Scotland Ltd v Fulton and another).
• The Public Bill Committee has considered proposed amendments to the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill 2014-2015 in relation to protection against blacklisting of whistleblowers and the introduction of financial penalties on employers for failure to pay sums ordered by employment tribunals.
• The government has announced the findings of its review of the Agency Worker Regulations 2010.
• The DfE has published the draft Teachers’ Pension Scheme (Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Regulations 2014 for consultation.

Environment:

• The High Court has refused an application for judicial review brought by four solar power companies against the government’s decision to close the Renewables Obligation early to new ground- and building-mounted solar photovoltaic capacity above five megawatts (Solar Century Holdings Ltd and others v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change).

FOI and data protection:

• The National Archives has launched Open Government Licence 3.0.

Health:

• The DH has published draft revised statutory guidance to implement the strategy for adults with autism in England.
• The DH and PHE have published a factsheet for local authorities on health visiting and the commissioning of public health services for children aged between 0-5 years.

Housing:

• The Supreme Court has:
  • ruled that a notice to quit served by one joint tenant will determine a tenancy and is not in breach of Article 8 or Article 1 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (Sims v Dacorum Borough Council); and
  • that local housing authorities are not required to apply for possession orders in cases involving temporary accommodation pending a homelessness review decision (R (ZH and CN) v London Borough of Newham and London Borough of Lewisham).
• The Court of Appeal has held that a housing allocation scheme excluding those in long-term, suitable temporary accommodation was unlawful (R (Jakimaviciute) v Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council).

Local government:

• The House of Commons Library has published a Standard Note on parish councils, which addresses a range of issues affecting parish and town councils.

Property and planning:

• The Supreme Court has held that breach of an obligation not to annoy or disturb other occupiers of a mobile home park through acts of anti-social behaviour was capable of remedy (Telchadder v Wickland Holdings Ltd).

Public procurement:

• The ECJ has handed down its ruling on a preliminary reference from an Italian court on whether EU law precludes the exclusion of an economic operator from a procurement procedure on the ground that it has failed to comply with a requirement to include a statement that its designated technical director has not been the subject of criminal proceedings or a conviction (Cartiera dell’Adda SpA v CEM Ambiente SpA).
• The High Court has held that the automatic suspension of a public services contract should remain in place until the conclusion of a trial (R (Edenred (UK Group) Limited) v HM Treasury and others).

Regulation and enforcement:

• The Upper Tribunal has dismissed an appeal against a First-tier Tribunal decision that local authorities providing off-street car parking were making standard-rated supplies (Isle of Wight Council and others v HMRC).