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 High Court has held that it had no jurisdiction to attach a power of arrest to a non-molestation injunction that it had granted under its inherent jurisdiction in respect of a vulnerable adult who had capacity (Re FD (Inherent Jurisdiction: Power of Arrest).

Central government:

• The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union has delivered a statement in the House of Commons in which he set out the government’s proposed next steps for leaving the EU.
• The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper examining initial proposals for new Westminster constituency boundaries in Wales.

Children’s services:

• The Family Court has clarified the alternative ground to satisfy the threshold criteria of being beyond parental control. The court held that it does not require a causal link between the the parental care given to the child and the child’s behaviour (WBC v A).

Civil litigation:

• The Civil Courts (Amendment) Order 2016 has been made and will come into force on 31 October 2016. It amends the Civil Courts Order 2014, which specifies the locations and names of the district registries of the High Court in England and Wales.
• The Supreme Court has published changes to its Practice Directions, which came into effect on 7 October 2016. The Privy Council has also published changes to its Practice Directions, which came into effect on 10 October 2016.
• The High Court has:
  • issued guidance on the timely service of documents on litigants in person (Re B (Litigants In Person: Timely Service of Documents)); and
  • refused to extend the statutory time limit for challenging the outcome of a review of a planning application where the claimant’s representative was prevented by security staff from attending the court office in time to file his claim (Croke v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and another).

Education:

• The Designation of Rural Primary Schools (England) Order 2016 has been made and came into force on 10 October 2016.
• The DfE has published:
  • guidance for local authorities interested in commissioning a special free school; and
  • updated statutory guidance on the constitution of governing bodies for maintained schools in England.
• The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper discussing the background and future of University Technical Colleges.

Environment:

• The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has overturned Lancashire County Council’s decision to refuse Cuadrilla planning permission for shale gas exploration and monitoring activities.

Employment and pensions:

• The EAT has:
  • held that an employment tribunal had jurisdiction to decide whether a settlement agreement which satisfied the requirements set out in section 203(3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 was nevertheless unenforceable because the claimant had lacked the mental capacity to enter into it (Glasgow City Council v Dahhan); and
  • given guidance on the objective justification test under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010 in a claim for discrimination arising from disability (Buchanan v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis).
• A Scottish employment tribunal has determined the compensation arising out of a discriminatory shared parental pay policy (Snell v Network Rail Infrastructure Limited).
• The President of the Employment Tribunals in England and Wales has issued Presidential Guidance creating a process of judicial assessment, the aim of which is to assist settlement of employment tribunal litigation.

FOI and data protection:

• The Upper Tribunal has held that a request for information made to the Health Research Authority (HRA) was vexatious and that the HRA was not obliged to comply with it in accordance with section 14(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Colin Parker v Information Commissioner).
• The Information Commissioner has made her first speech since her appointment. She advised businesses on meeting their data protection responsibilities and considered the implications of Brexit on future UK data protection law.
• The ICO has fined a telecoms company £400,000 for security failings that allowed a cyber attacker to access customer data.

Housing:

• The House of Commons Library has published briefing papers on:
  • the increase in the number of homeless households being placed in temporary accommodation by English local authorities;
  • the effect of government policy on the supported housing sector; and
  • statutory homelessness in England.

Local government law:

• The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government in the Welsh Government has announced proposals for mandatory and systematic regional delivery of key services by Welsh local authorities, in addition to further plans for local authorities and community councils.

Property and planning:

• The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 have been made and will come into force on 7 November 2016.

Public procurement:

• The ECJ has ruled that a request for a preliminary ruling on whether an issue was of cross border interest is not admissible (Tecnoedi Costruzioni Srl v Comune di Fossano and others).
• The DfT has published the government’s response to the CMA’s recommendations in relation to the Bus Services Bill 2016-17.
• The European Commission has published a study on the financing models for public services in the EU and their impact on competition.