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 Local Government email.

Adult social services:

• The Office of the Public Guardian and the Senior Courts Costs Office have published good practice guidance on professional deputy costs, to help professional deputies when submitting costs estimates and bills for assessment, and to explain what can be claimed in general management bills.

Central government:

• The House of Lords EU Committee have published a report on Parliament’s role in scrutinising negotiations on the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.

Children’s services:

• The High Court has:
  • deemed two unaccompanied minors from Pakistan to have no habitual residence. The English courts were seised and could make care orders (London Borough of Hillingdon v DS and others); and
  • applied the 1996 Hague Convention to the question of a Ukrainian child’s habitual residence and any transfer of proceedings using the same principles and case law applicable to Brussels II Revised (Re L (Habitual Residence: Domestic Abuse)).

Civil litigation:

• The Civil Procedure (Amendment No 3) Rules 2016 will come into force on 3 October 2016. The principal amendment is the replacement of CPR Part 52 (Appeals) with a revised, consolidated version.
• The Court of Appeal has partially allowed an appeal against the refusal of the appellants’ application for an order requiring the National Crime Agency to permit inspection of a request for Mutual Legal Assistance from the US Department of Justice. The decision clarifies the circumstances in which a party is entitled to disclosure and inspection of a document under CPR 31.14 (Abacha and others v National Crime Agency).
• The High Court has:
  • provided guidance on the court’s approach to joinder when it granted an application by Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, to be joined as second defendant to a claim brought by a party member against the party’s General Secretary (Foster v McNichol (General Secretary of the Labour Party, sued on behalf of all members of the Labour Party except the claimant)); and
  • considered various issues arising out of the e-disclosure in a case, notably the claimants’ application for an order requiring the defendants to procure “an appropriate re-review of their disclosure” by a lawyer independent of the firm representing them (Vilca and others v Xstrata Ltd and another).
• HM Courts and Tribunals Service has published a new guide to the conduct of litigation in the Administrative Court.
• A revised Guide to Judicial Conduct has been published.
• HM Courts & Tribunal Service has published a speech on modernising the justice system, which had been given by Kevin Gallagher, Digital Director for HMCTS.

Commercial:

• The government has published its response to the House of Lords Select Committee Report on the impact on disabled people of the Equality Act 2010.
• The Law Commission has published its 2015-16 annual report and launched a consultation regarding its 13th programme of law reform covering work from 2017-2020.
• The Law Society and CLLS have published a practice note on the execution of documents using an electronic signature.

Education:

• The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 will come into force on 1 September 2016, and make amendments to the pupil registration requirements in the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006.
• The Department for Education has published the government’s response to its January 2016 consultation on improving information gathering to identify children missing education.

Employment and pensions:

• The Civil Proceedings, First-Tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and Employment Tribunals (Fees) Amendment Order 2016 introduced revised fees from Monday 25 July 2016.
• The Court of Appeal has upheld a tribunal decision which found that a school had acted reasonably in dismissing a headteacher for misconduct on the basis that she did not disclose her relationship with a person convicted of making indecent images of children (A v B and another).
• The EAT has considered three aspects of a tribunal’s assessment of compensation for sex discrimination (Olayemi v Athena Medical Centre and Okoreaffia).
• The government has re-issued its policy guidance on national minimum wage enforcement to take account of recently increased penalties and forthcoming new measures under the Immigration Act 2016 including a new Labour Market Enforcement Order for persistent offenders.
• The Gangmasters Licensing Authority has announced that a company has been stripped of the GLA licence permitting them to supply temporary workers to a number of food factories, following a number of complaints that the company was “chopping” hours.

Environment:

• The Environment Agency has announced that a man has pleaded guilty to one offence of operating a regulated facility without a permit contrary to Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 and been fined £1,160.
• The Environmental Audit Committee has launched an inquiry into the future of the natural environment, following the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU.

Health:

• The British Medical Association, the Resuscitation Council (UK) and the Royal College of Nursing have published a revised version of their guidance for healthcare professionals on anticipatory decisions relating to cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Housing:

• The Local Government Association has published a guide to the Housing and Planning Act 2016.

Local government law:

• The High Court has held that a council’s decision to cut funding to voluntary sector organisations which provided short breaks to disabled children was unlawful (R (DAT and another) v West Berkshire Council).
• The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper highlighting the possible impact of exiting the European Union on local authorities.
• The Cabinet Office and the Home Office have published a code of practice and an impact assessment on the English language requirement for public sector workers.

Property and planning:

• The Home Loss Payments (Prescribed Amounts) (England) Regulations 2016 will come into force in England on 1 October 2016. The Regulations increase the amount of compensation payable in England under the Land Compensation Act 1973 to a person whose home is acquired by compulsory purchase.
• The High Court has held that an application may be made under section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 for the development of land without complying with conditions subject to which a previous planning permission was granted by a development order (Pressland v The Council of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham).

Public procurement:

• The European Commission has published a decision holding that Directive 2014/25 on procurement by utility companies shall not apply to contracts awarded by contracting entities and intended to enable the following services to be carried out in Poland: clearance, sorting, transport and delivery of courier items; unaddressed mail items; and printing and packaging services.
• The European Court of Auditors has published a special report on how EU institutions can do more to facilitate access to their public procurement.

Regulation and enforcement:

• The Environment Agency has announced that a water company has been fined £426,000 following a guilty plea to breaching Regulations 12(1)(b) and 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 on three occasions.
• The Health and Safety Executive has announced that a school has been fined £26,000 after pleading guilty to breaching sections 2(1) and 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 in relation to asbestos exposure.