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.

Replacing our recommended actions, In brief will include a one sentence summary of all of the legal developments reported in our weekly e-mail to make sure that no matter how busy our subscribers are, they can still keep in touch with all the latest developments.

Charities:

• The Charity Commission has published updated guidance on public benefit.

Civil litigation:

• The High Court has declined to correct an error in a contract in the choice of naming party on the ground that the background to the contract demonstrated that a positive choice had been made (Liberty Mercian Ltd v Cuddy Civil Engineering Ltd).
• The Ministry of Justice has published its response to the consultation on the fee remissions system in courts and tribunals and the Courts and Tribunals Fee Remissions Order 2013 has also been laid before Parliament, which implements the consultation proposals.

Education and children’s services:

• The Local Safeguarding Children Boards (Review) Regulations 2013 have been made providing for the review of Boards by HM Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills.
• The Community Care, Services for Carers and Children’s Services (Direct Payments) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 have been made, removing restrictions on how long certain authorities can made direct payments for residential accommodation for.
• The High Court has held that a document reviewing a previous year’s sufficiency of childcare provision assessment was not a “material consideration” for the purposes of judicial review (R (Littlefair) v Darlington Borough Council).
• The Department for Education (DfE) has published:
  • statutory guidance on assessment and reporting arrangements in key stage 2;
  • guidance on school uniform;
  • a consultation on changes to accountability arrangements for educations providers for 16-19 year olds; and
  • a consultation on changes to the system of school organisation.

Employment and Pensions:

• The Court of Appeal has held that a tribunal erred in finding the refusal of suitable alternative employment by a potentially redundant employee was unreasonable (Devon Primary Care Trust v Readman).
• The EAT has held that:
  • a judge was entitled to find that a second set of race discrimination proceedings were barred by cause of action estoppel and as an abuse of process (Agbenowossi-Koffi v Donovan Ltd t/a Gullivers Travel Associates); and
  • an employer’s failure to provide an impartial grievance appeal process could amount to a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence and form the basis for an unfair dismissal claim (Blackburn v Aldi Stores Ltd).
• The DfE has published a consultation on draft regulations that will implement the Teachers’ Pension Scheme in England and Wales from 1 April 2015.

Environment:

• The European Parliament has adopted a legislative Resolution amending the existing Directives on fuel quality and renewable energy.
• The government has published a consultation on a revised site selection process for the geological disposal of radioactive waste.

Equality Act 2010:

• The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (Commencement No 3, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2013 has been made repealing the third-party harassment provisions in the Equality Act 2010.
• The National Assembly for Wales has published a report on the future of equality and human rights in Wales.

FOI and data protection:

• The ECJ has dismissed an application by ClientEarth seeking to require the European Commission to disclose environmental information about the negative effects of climate change arising from the increased use of biofuels and member states’ compliance (ClientEarth v European Commission).
• The Court of Appeal has awarded £750 in damages to a claimant for the distress suffered as a result of a Data Protection Act 1998 breach (Halliday v Creation Consumer Finance Ltd).
• The First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) (FTTIR) has:
  • upheld an appeal against an Information Commissioner decision holding that a job title held by more than one official could still be classed as personal data (London Borough of Barnet v Information Commissioner and another); and
  • required a local authority to disclose full details of a Building Regulations application to the applicant’s neighbour (Henderson v Information Commissioner).
• The ICO has published guidance for organisation receiving unwanted marketing.

Housing:

• The Welsh Government has published a consultation on amending the duty of Welsh local authorities to accommodate former prisoners as “priority need” cases.

Local government:

• The Sustainable Communities (Parish Councils) Order 2013 has been made, extending existing arrangements under the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 in relation to sustainability proposals to parish councils.
• The Welsh Government has published a consultation on giving local authorities a discretionary power to increase council tax on second homes.

Property and planning:

• The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (Commencement No 3, Transitional Provisions and Savings) Order 2013 has been made bringing a number of provisions of the 2013 Act into force relevant to property practitioners.
• The Department for Transport has published a new circular on the strategic road network.

Public procurement and state aid:

• The ECJ has ruled on how the procurement rules apply to professional medical associations.
• The General Court has:
  • confirmed that the transfer of heritage land free of charge constitutes state aid; and
  • dismissed an appeal against a European Commission decision funding that a proposed Italian regional subsidy was incompatible with state aid.
• The Council of the European Union has published texts of three new procurement directives.
• The Welsh Government has published public procurement guidance on blacklisting in the construction industry.

Regulation and enforcement:

• The Co-ordination of Regulatory Enforcement (Enforcement Action) (Amendment) Order 2013 has been made add to the list of enforcement actions contained in the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008.
• The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 (Prescribed Relevant Offences and Relevant Enforcement Action) Regulations 2013 have been made setting out the offences and actions that a local authority should take into account when deciding whether to grant a scrap metal dealer licence.
• The Home Office has published a consultation on abolishing personal alcohol licences.