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.

Central government:

• The government has published its 2013 Public Bodies Report.
• A draft Modern Slavery Bill has been published.

Civil litigation:

• The High Court has:
  • directed that, following acceptance of the claimant’s part 36 offer, the eighth defendant was only liable for those costs solely attributable to the claim against it and that common costs should be apportioned (Haynes v Department for Business, Innovation and Skills); and
  • struck out claims as an abuse of process, which were made by a claimant in an attempt to obtain a tactical advantage by choosing to commence proceedings in the High Court rather than the Employment Tribunal (where she had also commenced proceedings) (Vaughan v London Borough of Lewisham and others).

Commercial:

• The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Bill 2013-14 has been published and received its first reading in the House of Lords.
• The Court of Appeal has ruled on the duty of care owed by solicitors when acting for conflicted company directors (Newcastle International Airport Ltd v Eversheds LLP).

Education and children’s services:

• The Local Authority (Duty to Secure Early Years Provision Free of Charge) Regulations 2013 have been made and will come into force on 1 September 2014.
• The Family Procedure (Amendment No 3) Rules 2013 have been made and will come into force when section 17(3) of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 is brought fully into force.
• The High Court has:
  • given the reasons for ordering limited reporting restrictions in a case involving a mother in respect of whom the Court of Protection had previously authorised an involuntary caesarean, with the Chelmsford County Court subsequently ordering the adoption of the child (P (A Child));
  • given guidance about drafting and proving alleged breaches of an injunction in proceedings for committal for contempt of court (Re Whiting); and
  • granted a granted a request for proceedings relating to care and placement orders for a child to be transferred to the courts of the Czech Republic under Article 15 of Brussels II Revised (D (A child)).
• The Court of Protection has given guidance on forced marriage and the use of forced marriage protection orders where a party lacks capacity (YLA v PM and Another).

Employment and pensions:

• The EAT has held that a council could not rely on the statutory authority defence to a claim of direct age discrimination made by an employee who had received a smaller enhanced redundancy package than her younger colleagues, as she was over 60 (Heron v Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council).
• The ET has held that a Labour Party member’s belief in “democratic socialism” could be considered to be a philosophical belief under Equality Act 2010 (Olivier v Department of Work and Pensions).
• The government has launched a consultation on zero hours contracts.

Environment:

• The Energy Efficiency (Eligible Buildings) Regulations 2013 have been made and will come into force in January and June 2014.
• The Welsh Government has published a noise action plan for Wales for 2013-18.
• The government has:
  • announced that it will no longer support the costs of investigating and remediating contaminated land under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990; and
  • published its response to its July 2013 consultation on reform of the Local Air Quality Management system.
• The Environment Agency and:
  • Natural England have published a joint action plan; and
  • Public Health England have published a “working together agreement”, which sets out how the two bodies will work together in making decisions on the Environmental Permitting regime in England.

FOI and data protection:

• The European Commission has published a report summarising responses to its consultation on the guidelines on recommended standard licences, datasets and charging for the re-use of public sector information.

Health:

• New and updated factsheets have been published on the Care Bill 2013-14.

Housing:

• Updated social housing allocations guidance has been published, focusing on prioritising social housing for local people.
• The government has published updated guidance on the right to manage.

 Property and planning:

• The Infrastructure Planning (Business or Commercial Projects) Regulations 2013 have been made and came into force on 18 December 2013.
• The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure and Section 62A Applications) (England) (Amendment No 2) Order 2013 has been made and will come into force in England on 13 January 2014.
• The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal made by a property investment company against an earlier High Court ruling that planning permissions which had been granted in relation to a number of retail units did not release the units from existing planning obligations which prevented certain goods from being sold (Peel Land and Property Investments plc v Hyndburn Borough Council).
• Natural England has announced that it will be taking over sole responsibility for giving environmental advice on planning applications for offshore renewables (offshore wind, wave and tidal projects) in English offshore waters.

Public procurement:

• New UK public procurement thresholds were set from 1 January 2014 following the amendment of the thresholds in the EU public procurement directives.
• New Regulations on de minimis state aid have been published in the Official Journal.