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.
Civil litigation:
- The High Court has:
- confirmed that criminal restraint orders do not prevent a defendant from incurring new liabilities (Revell-Reade v Serious Fraud Office); and
- ruled on the meaning of defamatory statement in an online publication (Flood v Times Newspapers Ltd).
- Self employed barristers will be able to conduct litigation from January 2014 after approval of the new Bar Standards Board’s code of conduct.
- Members of the judiciary have been updated on the development of proposals to reform HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
Central government:
- HM Treasury has published a consultation on industrial and provident societies.
Education and children’s services:
- The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the decision by a local authority to treat family and unrelated foster carers differently was unlawful (R (X) v London Borough of Tower Hamlets).
- The High Court has held that a school reception class appeal was an infant class size appeal under the School Admission Appeals Code 2012 (R (DD) v Independent Appeal Panel of the London Borough of Islington and another).
- The Department for Education has published non-statutory advice on the admission of summer born children.
Employment and pensions:
- The Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal Fees Order 2013 came into force on 26 July 2013.
- The Court of Appeal has held that Tribunals should hold preliminary hearings to discuss how frightened witnesses could give evidence (Duffy v George).
- A new ET1, ET3 and Presidential Practice Direction have been published.
- The Court of Appeal has confirmed that the Government Actuary’s Department is an “administrator” and therefore within the Pensions Ombudsman jurisdiction (Government Actuary’s Department v Pensions Ombudsman).
- A decision-maker considering the eligibility for an ill-health early retirement pension must provide “full reasons in a simple language” if they decide not to grant a pension (Hayes (PO-667)).
Environment:
- The Natural Resources Body for Wales (Consequential Provision) Order 2013 has been made.
- The final version of the Hazardous Waste National Policy Statement has been approved by Parliament.
- The government has published a consultation on draft noise action plans.
FOI and data protection:
- The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Commencement No 8) Order 2013 has been made.
- The Supreme Court has dismissed a Scottish local authority’s appeal against the disclosure of information on equal pay requested by an equality campaign group (South Lanarkshire Council v The Scottish Information Commissioner).
- The Investigatory Powers Tribunal has held that the covert recording of a “voluntary declared interview” was not surveillance for the purposes of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
- The Information Commissioner’s office has issued an enforcement notice requiring Hertfordshire Constabulary to review its use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras.
- The Intelligence and Security Committee has issued a statement that GCHQ is accessing information via the US PRISM programme legally.
- The European Council has adopted a Directive on attacks against information systems.
Housing:
- The Court of Appeal has held that a “tolerated trespasser” was granted a secure tenancy under a decant agreement (Francis v Brent Housing Partnership Ltd and others).
- The High Court has dismissed a judicial review action which argued that changes to the housing benefit rules discriminated against disabled people (R (MA) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions).
- The government has published a summary of responses to its consultation on high income social housing tenants.
Property and planning:
- The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (No 2) (England) Order 2013 has been made.
- The Access to the Countryside (Maps) (England) Regulations 2013 have been made.
- The High Court has held that any obvious alternatives to remedy a breach should be considered on an enforcement notice appeal (Ahmed v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and another).
- A code of best practice on mobile phone network development has been published by the Mobile Operators Association.
- The government has published a consultation on property owner Business Improvement Districts.
- The Welsh Government has published a consultation on improving the protection of the historic environment of Wales.
Public procurement:
- The Cabinet Office has published:
Regulation and enforcement:
- The Taking Control of Goods Regulations 2013 have been made.
- The government has published guidance on accountability for regulator impact.
- The Better Regulation Delivery Office has published a code for regulators.