REUTERS | Eric Thayer

In brief for week ending 20 August 2014

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 Cabinet Office has announced the launch of the Government Property Finder, a new tool that maps government property and land, and can be used to search the government’s property portfolio.

Civil litigation:

  • The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office has revoked the Judicial Discipline (Prescribed Procedures) Regulations 2013 and replaced them with the Judicial Discipline (Prescribed Procedures) Regulations 2014 with effect from 18 August 2014. The supporting rules to the regulations were also revoked on 18 August 2014 and were reissued with minor amendments.
  • The Civil Justice Council has clarified that the new guidance for the instruction of experts in civil claims will apply from Autumn 2014. It will take effect once the protocol currently annexed to PD 35, which it replaces, has been formally removed from the Civil Procedure Rules.

Commercial:

  • BIS has published guidance for businesses on the Consumer Protection (Amendment) Regulations 2014, which give further powers to consumers with regard to misleading and aggressive sales practices.

Education and children’s services:

  • The High Court has decided to oversee a rehabilitation plan before allowing the local authority to withdraw its case concerning a five year old child and her siblings who had been removed from their parents for over a year (C City Council v T and others).
  • The Children and Vulnerable Witnesses Working Group has published its first interim report, which sets out reforms to equip family court judges to identify and handle vulnerable parties and witnesses, and advocates to question these parties and witnesses.
  • The Education Funding Agency has published guidance on its publication policy regarding the outcomes of its financial and governance investigations into the educational institutions for which it has lead responsibility (including free schools and sixth form colleges).

Employment and pensions:

  • The Court of Appeal has ruled that an assessor assisting a judge in a same sex sexual orientation discrimination claim against the police in relation to the provision of services did not require specific experience and expertise in relation to same sex sexual orientation discrimination in society generally (David Cary v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis and another).
  • The Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched a call for evidence about how religion and belief affects experiences in the workplace and the use of services and facilities in everyday life.

Environment:

  • BIS and the devolved administrations have published a consultation on UK implementation of the Batteries Directive 2013, which amends the Batteries Directive 2006.
  • The Department of Energy and Climate Change has published a policy scoping document on developing an approach for the next phase of carbon capture and storage projects in the UK.

FOI and data protection:

  • The National Archives has published a consultation inviting views on proposals for implementing in the UK Directive 2013/37/EU, which revises Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information.
  • The Courts and Tribunals Judiciary has published a consultation on amending the Senior President’s practice statement to change the composition of panels in information rights cases in the First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber).

Health:

  • Public Health England has published guidance on organising and managing multidisciplinary teams in a local government context in relation to public health.

Housing:

  • The Welsh Government has published a consultation on draft guidance dealing with “notifiable events” in relation to registered social landlords.

Local government:

Public procurement:

  • The government has published information on the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, which requires public authorities to consider the economic, social and environmental well-being of their area when undertaking public procurements.

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