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 Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee of the House of Commons has published a follow-up to the report published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman on unsafe discharge from hospital.

Central government:

• The grounds of resistance filed on behalf of the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union have been released in advance of the hearing of the judicial review challenge to the process of Brexit.
• The government’s Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has launched an inquiry into the impact of Brexit on the creative industries and the digital single market.
• The British Institute of Human Rights has launched its Joint Civil Society report. The report is part of the organisation’s Human Rights Check UK project, which has been assessing human rights changes in the UK since the last review by the United Nations in 2012.

Civil litigation:

• HM Courts and Tribunals Service has published a note announcing that, from 3 October 2016, Court Associates of the RCJ will be able to approve and seal Tomlin orders provided certain conditions are met. This will apply only to the Chancery Division.
• The Ministry of Justice has published the making document setting out the changes to practice directions made in conjunction with the 86th CPR update.
• Lord Justice Jackson has delivered a lecture at the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, entitled “Civil Justice Reform and Alternative Dispute Resolution”, which emphasised how the reform movements in both domains are closely linked.

Employment and pensions:

• HMRC has launched a consultation on the first draft of regulations for the calculation and payment of the Apprenticeship Levy.
• The Local Government Pension Scheme (Management and Investment of Funds) Regulations 2016 have been laid before Parliament, and the government’s response to its consultation on a draft version of the regulations has also been published.
• The Pensions Ombudsman has held that there was no maladministration causing financial loss by an NHS Pension Scheme’s manager in failing to inform a member before the statutory 6 April 2015 deadline for DB-to-DC transfers that it had no discretion to grant her a transfer out of the scheme (Determination in a complaint by Dr D).

FOI and data protection:

• The High Court has held that in conducting a balancing exercise on whether to disclose to a patient an expert report into a doctor’s fitness to practice, the General Medical Council had failed to give adequate weight to the doctor’s privacy rights as a data subject or his express refusal of consent to the report’s disclosure (DB v GMC).

Health:

• The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper looking at the development of commissioning arrangements in the NHS in England up to April 2013.

Local government law:

• The Local Justice Areas Order 2016 has been made, creating fifteen new local justice areas by combining certain existing local justice areas. The Order will come into force on 1 April 2017.

Public procurement:

• The ECJ has dismissed a number of claims brought against the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s software development procurement (European Dynamics Luxembourg SA, Evropaiki Dynamiki Proigmena Systimata Tilepikoinonion Pliroforikis kai Tilematikis AE v European Institute of Innovation and Technology).
• The Crown Commercial Service has published Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 08/16: Standard Selection Questionnaire. The PPN sets out the revised standard selection questionnaire, which replaces the current standard Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) and supersedes the guidance on supplier selection and PQQs in PPN 03/15.

Regulation and enforcement:

• The Upper Tribunal has held that HMRC and HM Treasury had correctly interpreted the VAT exemption applicable to local authorities to include the collection of commercial waste by those authorities on request, and with the imposition of a charge (Durham Company Limited v HMRC and HM Treasury and Local Government Association).
• The First-tier Tribunal has dismissed an appeal against suspension of a registered day-care provider and confirmed the suspension, where building detritus was present and the manager’s medical fitness was in issue (New Street Playground Committee v Ofsted).