In brief for week ending 30 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:

Civil litigation:

Commercial:

Education and children’s services:

Employment and pensions:

  • The government has set out its plans for implementation of apprenticeships reform.
  • The government has announced that it will be commissioning advice on LGPS collaboration and consolidation.

Environment:

  • The Welsh Government has published a consultation on its proposals to introduce an Environment (Wales) Bill.
  • The Law Commission has published an interim statement on its wildlife law review.
  • The government has reminded local authorities of their recycling obligations from 2015 and warned them of new regulations it hopes to publish in winter 2013-14 requiring information about the output of mixed recycling facilities.

FOI and data protection:

  • The ECJ has ruled that the requirement for fingerprints to be submitted and stored on a passport did not contravene data protection legislation (Michael Schwarz v Stadt Bochum).
  • The High Court has dismissed an application for an anonymity order sought by a man who had been investigated for alleged sexual offences against children but had not been charged (PNM v Times Newspapers Ltd and others).
  • The Home Office has published a ministerial statement and a report on the national DNA and fingerprint databases and compliance with the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. Regulations supporting the ministerial statement have also been published.
  • The Justice and Home Affairs Council has discussed a proposal for a General Data Protection Regulation.
  • The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee has adopted a draft compromise text for the draft Data Protection regulation proposed in January 2012.

Health:

  • The Department of Health has published a set of key principles for operating clinical governance systems in sexual health services.
  • The Competition Commission has published a consultation on draft procedural rules for determinations on references from Monitor on the methodology for setting the national tariff for NHS health care services.

Housing:

  • The European Court of Human Rights has upheld a Supreme Court ruling that it was proportionate for Manchester City Council to evict the applicants following anti-social behaviour in the property that they occupied (Pinnock and Walker v UK).

Human rights:

  • The Ministry of Justice has published its report to the Joint Committee on Human Rights.

Local government:

  • Regulations have been made adding school organisation proposals to the list of Welsh local authority executive functions.

Property and planning:

Public procurement:

  • HM Treasury and Infrastructure UK have published online value for money PFI/PPP guidance.

Regulation and enforcement:

  • The OFT has published its response to the Draft Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading (Amendment) Regulations 2013.
  • The Trading Standards Institute has published its response to the Draft Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading (Amendment) Regulations 2013 and the Draft Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation, and Additional Payments) Regulations 2013.

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