25/10/2013

In brief for week ending 23 October 2013

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 DWP has published a suite of precedent contracts and information for its supply chain.
  • The Ministry of Justice has launched a call for evidence on its review of the balance of competences between the UK and EU on fundamental rights.

Civil litigation:

  • The High Court has:
    • considered an application for a previously closed judgment to be made public and a claimant to be discharged from previous confidentiality undertakings, ruling that certain parts of the judgment should be disclosed but not all (R (Evans) v Secretary of State for Defence);
    • rejected an appeal against permission granted to claimants allowing them to amend their particulars of claim to include an alternative allegation (Nolan and others v Tui UK Ltd);
    • rejected an application for a judge to recuse himself from a trial on the grounds of apparent bias (Resolution Chemicals Ltd v H Lundbeck A/S); and
    • considered interest, costs and Part 36 in a claim involving the additional sanction set out in CPR 36.14(3)(d). In this instance the court held it would be unjust to award the sanction (Feltham v Bouskell).
  • The Technology and Construction Court has looked at whether there should be an interim payment on account of costs, and if so, the extent to which it should have regard to a costs management order made earlier in the proceedings (National Museums and Galleries On Merseyside (Trustees of) v AEW Architects and Designers Ltd).
  • The judiciary has published a new guide for litigations in person in civil proceedings.

Commercial:

  • The Technology and Construction Court has ordered a contractor to pay its employer completion costs after the contractor’s employment was terminated (Sabic UK Petrochemicals Ltd v Punj Lloyd Ltd).
  • The OFT has published its response to BIS’s consultation on the Draft Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Payments) Regulations 2013.
  • The European Commission has launched a consultation on the review of the regulation dealing with consumer protection.

Education and children’s services:

  • The Children and Young Persons Act 2008 (Commencement Order No 5) (England) Order 2013 and the Providers of Social Work Services (England) Regulations 2013 have been made.
  • The Supreme Court has ruled that a school did owe a non-delegable duty to care to a pupil injured during a swimming lesson provided by a private contractor (Woodland v Essex County Council).
  • The Court of Appeal has ruled that a school was not liable after a pupil injured himself on a water fountain (West Sussex County Council v Pierce (A Child)).
  • The High Court has quashed a decision of the Independent Appeal Panel stating that it had failed to give effect to an agreement between an excluded child, his solicitor, the school and its governing body (SA v London Borough of Camden Independent Appeal Panel and H School).
  • The Upper Tribunal has ruled that a SEN assessment must still be undertaken if requested, even if the child will shortly be moving from primary to secondary school (Buckinghamshire County Council v HW).

Employment and pensions:

  • The Automatic Enrolment (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2013 have been laid before Parliament.
  • The Court of Appeal has ruled that the EAT had erred in its approach to a comparator in a direct age discrimination claim (Lockwood v DWP and another).
  • The EAT has held that an interim relief order could be made against a party who was not the original employer (Langton v Secretary of State for Health).

FOI and data protection:

Health:

  • The National Health Service (Licence exemptions, etc) Regulations 2013 have been published.
  • The Competition Commissioner has announced that it has decided to prohibit the Dorset hospital merger.
  • The Information Commissioner’s Office has announced that NHS England has confirmed that data extraction for its care.data system will not start until Spring 2014.

Local government:

  • The High Court has dismissed an application to reinstate judicial review proceedings, in a community care case, based on different grounds and a different decision (R (Bhatti) v Bury MBC).
  • The High Court has quashed two traffic regulation orders on the ground that they had been made on the basis of improper considerations (Trail Riders Fellowship and others v Powys County Council).
  • The Ministry of Justice has published a second consultation on changes to lasting power of attorney forms and the supervision of deputies.
  • The European Commission has published a consultation on review of VAT legislation on public bodies and tax exemptions in the public interest.
  • Town and parish councils have been invited to submit “barrier busting” proposals under the Sustainable Communities Act 2007.

Property and planning:

Public procurement:

  • The Scottish Government has published a review of public sector procurement in construction.
  • The Welsh Government has published a guide to joint bidding for public contracts.
  • The European Commission has referred Poland to the ECJ for a failure to comply with the EU public procurement rules.
  • A call for applications for the selection of an expert in the Commission stakeholder expert group has been published.
  • The ECJ has ruled that Italy had failed to fulfil its obligation to recover state aid from Alcoa.
  • The European Commission has published a consultation on new rules for state aid for agriculture, forestry and rural areas.

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