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 Court of Protection has held that, in an application for a welfare order seeking to authorise the deprivation of liberty of an individual, the individual in question does not have to be a party to all such applications (NRA and others).
• The Local Government Ombudsman has published a report on the information given to families by social authorities about social care costs.

Children’s Services:

• The Adoption Information and Intermediary Services (Pre-Commencement Adoptions) (Amendment) Regulations 2015 have been made and will come into force on 10 November 2015.
• The Court of Appeal has considered whether, in care proceedings, the specific information about specific prospective adopters should form part of the balancing exercise of the realistic placement options for a child (Re T (A Child) (Early Permanence Placement)).
• The High Court has:
  • concluded that an adoption order extinguishes Article 8 rights under the European Convention of Human Rights between a child and his birth parents (Seddon v Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council); and
  • held that invalid consent to children becoming voluntarily accommodated under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 constituted a violation of the parents’ rights under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, but was not a breach of a duty of care towards the parents (Williams and another v London Borough of Hackney).
• The revised fixed fee model for one counsel care cases (known as the Care Case Fee Scheme) will be used from 1 October 2015.

Civil litigation:

• The Court of Appeal has held that it was within the ambit of the lower court’s discretion to decide that applying the default costs position in old CPR 36.10(5) (in force before 6 April 2015) was not unjust. Accordingly, the defendants were liable to pay the claimants’ costs of the proceedings (Dutton and others v Minards and others).
• The High Court has considered whether a Part 36 offer was a genuine one within the meaning in CPR 36.17(5)(e) (MVN (R on the application of ) v London Borough Of Greenwich).
• The County Court has considered an appeal from a decision of a district judge, given in the course of the oral review of a provisional assessment of the appellant’s bill of costs, to limit the ATE insurance premium that the appellant was entitled to recover (Hahn v NHS England).

Commercial:

• The government has made two Statutory Instruments relating to enforcement under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
• BIS has published:
  • a plain English summary of the key elements of the Consumer Rights Act 201; and
  • the government’s response following its consultation for a Small Business Commissioner.

Education:

• The Department for Education has published a consultation on the latest proposed changes to the rules governing school and early years finance.

Employment and pensions:

• An Employment Tribunal has upheld all of a claimant’s claims, which included unlawful deductions of wages, unfair dismissal, race discrimination, religious discrimination and breaches of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (Tirkey v Chandok and another).
• On 1 October 2015 several key employment law changes were introduced by the Deregulation Act 2015, including removing the power for employment tribunals to make wider recommendations in discrimination cases, and extending the right for Sikhs to wear a turban instead of a safety helmet in almost all workplaces.
• The Pensions Ombudsman has held that it was not maladministration for an LGPS employer to make the offer of an enhanced pension conditional on a member signing a compromise agreement excluding any claim for unpaid wages in the particular circumstances of the case (Determination in a complaint by Mrs Linda Smith).

Environment:

• The Planning (Hazardous Substances) (Wales) Regulations 2015 came into force on 4 September 2015, implementing the land-use planning requirements of the Seveso III Directive in Wales.
• The Welsh Government (WG) has:
  • published the responses to the WG’s consultation on devolution of powers over landfill tax to the WG from April 2018; and
  • launched a consultation on its draft Public Sector Waste and Resource Efficiency Plan.
• Defra has published a consultation on proposed changes to guidance on Environmental Permitting for small waste incineration plants.
• HM Treasury and the DECC have published a consultation on reforming the business energy efficiency tax landscape.
• The DECC and DCLG have laid complementary written ministerial statements before Parliament on planning for onshore oil and gas, including shale gas.
• The WG has published an updated toolkit on planning for renewable energy. The toolkit aims to help local planning authorities produce renewable energy assessments, and develop planning policies that support the use and generation of renewable and low carbon energy.

FOI and data protection:

• A written ministerial statement has confirmed that the Department of Culture Media & Sport is taking over responsibility for data protection policy from the Ministry of Justice and, with it, sponsorship of the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Health:

• The Court of Protection has appointed a deputy whose habitual residence is outside its jurisdiction of England and Wales (DGP Law v DGHP and others).
• The Office of the Public Guardian has published the timing for introducing changes to the way Court of Protection deputies are supervised and supported in the Autumn 2015 issue of its newsletter for deputies.

Property and planning:

• The Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015 have been made and came into force in England on 1 October 2015.
• The Immigration Bill 2015-16 has been introduced into the House of Commons.
• HM Treasury has published National Infrastructure Plan for Skills: September 2015.
• The Welsh Government’s Minister for Finance and Government Business has made a written statement about, and published a summary of responses to, the land transaction tax consultation.

Public procurement:

• The High Court has handed down a judgment granting an application by a council to lift the suspension on its award of a contract pending resolution of a procurement dispute (Openview Security Solutions Ltd v The London Borough of Merton Council).
• The Crown Commercial Service has published new guidance on electronic procurement and electronic communication under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.