Make sure that you have not missed a key development in your area of the law by reading our latest In brief review of the Practical Law Public Sector e-mail for the week ending 24 July 2012.
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.
Central government:
- The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill has received Royal Assent.
- The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill has been published.
Charities:
- The Charities Act 2011 (Principal Regulators of Exempt Charities) Regulations 2013 have been made and will appoint BIS as the principal regulator of further education colleges that are exempt charities from 1 September 2013.
- The Charity Commission has published new guidance on charity trustee decision making.
Civil litigation:
- The Crime and Courts Act 2013 (Commencement No 3) Order 2013 has been made bringing various provisions of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 into force in 2013.
- The High Court has refused an application for certain information to be removed from a transcript on the ground of commercial sensitivity holding that there needed to be compelling reasons to depart from the principle of open justice (R (GSTS Pathology LLP) v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs).
Education and children’s services:
- Powers under sections 444A and 444B of the Education Act 1996 have been extended to Wales under the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 (Amendment to the Education Act 1996) (Wales) Order 2013.
- The School Admissions Code has been brought into force in Wales by the School Admissions Code (Appointed Day) (Wales) Order 2013.
- The DfE has published:
- Advice on the Academy/free school presumption.
- A consultation on changes to the National College for Teaching and Leadership advice on teacher misconduct.
- The House of Commons Education Committee has published a report on the role of school governing bodies.
Employment:
- The Employment Appeal Tribunal (Amendment) Rules 2013 have been published.
- The Sex Discrimination Code of Practice (Equal Pay) (Appointed Day) Order (Northern Ireland) 2013 brought the Northern Ireland Code of Practice on Equal Pay into force on 22 July 2013.
- The ECJ has held that the “static” interpretation of TUPE in relation to collective agreements is the correct one and the “dynamic” approach is prohibited (Alemo-Herron and others v Parkwood Leisure Ltd).
Environment:
- The government has:
- announced a new definition of fuel poverty.
- announced revisions to the certification criteria for renewable combined heat and power schemes.
- announced the community benefits available to communities hosting new nuclear power stations.
- published a consultation on the Waste Management Plan for England.
- published a consultation on a review of local air quality management system in England.
Equality Act 2010:
- The Court of Appeal has ruled that a B&B did discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation by refusing a same-sex couple a room (Black v Wilkinson).
EU:
- BIS has published a “balance of competences” review of the single market.
FOI and data protection:
- The First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) has applied the Upper Tribunal Dransfield ruling on “manifest unreasonableness” in relation to the disclosure of environmental information (Yeoman v Information Commissioner and another and Silverman v Information Commissioner and another).
- The government has published:
- a code of practice on datasets;
- several consultations on the release of datasets by two government departments.
- Various Orders have been made relating to the destruction, retention and use of biometric data, fingerprints, DNA samples and DNA profiles.
- The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Commencement No 2) (Wales) Order 2013 has been made.
Health:
- The government has published a consultation on the implementation of care funding reforms.
Housing:
- The High Court has held that a long term agreement entered into before a building was constructed or let was not a Qualifying Long Term Agreement under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 (BDW Trading Ltd and another v South Anglia Housing Ltd).
- The government has published a consultation on the Housing Transfer Manual.
Property and planning:
- The Commons (Registration of Town or Village Greens) and Dedicated Highways (Landowner Statements and Declarations) (England) Regulations 2013 have been made and will come into force on 1 October 2013.
- The Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 (Commencement No 3 and Savings) Order 2013 has been made, bringing a number of provisions of the Act into force from 1 October 2013.
- The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (Wales) Order 2013 has been made and will come into force on 30 September 2013.
- The Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Commencement No 3 and Transitional, Transitory and Saving Provisions) (Wales) Order 2013 has been made and came into force on 10 July 2013.
- The High Court has provided clarification on when an offence under section 181(5) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 will have been committed (Pathfield Estates Ltd v London Borough of Haringey Council).
- The government has published :
- planning practice guidance on shale gas development.
- a consultation on HS2 Phase Two and the exceptional hardship compensation scheme.
Public procurement:
- The High Court has ruled on specific disclosure in a public procurement dispute (Pearson Driving Assessments Ltd v The Minister for the Cabinet).
- The High Court has refused to amend a claim form in a procurement action concluding that new claims had been introduced and as such the original form did not accurately reflect the particulars of claim (Corelogic Ltd v Bristol City Council).
- The Scottish Court of Session has rejected a claim that a procurement action was time-barred (Nationwide Gritting Services Ltd v The Scottish Ministers).
- COREPER has endorsed agreement between the Council and the European Parliament on a proposed public procurement reform package.
- The House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee has published a report on government procurement.
Regulation and enforcement:
- The High Court has held that the London Borough of Barnet was not entitled to use parking permit charges to create a surplus for other transport purposes (R (Attfield) v London Borough of Barnet).
- The Welsh Government has published a ministerial statement on sprinkler systems and the Building Regulations.