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:
- The European Parliament has adopted a non-legislative Resolution on the location of the seats of the EU Institutions.
Civil litigation:
- The High Court has applied the Court of Appeal’s test from M v London Borough of Croydon in a judicial review costs decision (Unichi v London Borough of Southwark).
- The Attorney General and the Lord Chief Justice for England and Wales have published a revised judicial protocol and revised guidelines on the disclosure of unused material in criminal cases.
- The MoJ has published a consultation paper on proposals for the reform of court fees.
Employment and pensions:
- The government has published its response to the consultation seeking views on how to administer the shared parental leave scheme, due to be introduced in 2015.
- A commission set up by the charity, Public Concern at Work, has made recommendations for improving protection for whistleblowers and encouraging a culture of compliance with whistleblowing legislation.
- The Government Actuary’s Department has announced details of its approach to undertaking broad comparability assessments in the light of the introduction of the LGPS 2014 on 1 April 2014.
Environment:
- The DECC has announced that industry representative bodies have signed a memorandum of understanding on fracking.
FOI and data protection:
- The Upper Tribunal has dismissed an NHS Trust’s appeal against a monetary penalty notice issued for a data breach by the trust (Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust v The Information Commissioner).
- The First-Tier Tribunal (Information Rights) has ruled that:
- HS2 Ltd was not required to disclose a full internal organisation chart showing staff names in response to a FOIA request, since the section 40(2) exemption for personal data applied (Chapman v Information Commissioner);
- the Cabinet Office must publish under FOIA the number of times that a Cabinet sub-committee had met (Cabinet Office v Information Commissioner); and
- a parish council that was a member of a joint committee (JC) held information in the possession of the JC for the purposes of FOIA (Case v Information Commissioner).
- From 4 December 2013, advisory notes from the Attorney General will be published on the gov.uk website and on Twitter to help prevent social media users from committing a contempt of court.
Health:
- The DH has published its annual directions for 2013 to local Healthwatch organisations on the issues that they must cover in their annual reports.
- The Competition Commission has published a notice of a proposal to accept final undertakings to prohibit the anticipated merger of two NHS Foundation Trusts.
Human rights:
- The Council of Europe has issued a call for information and proposals for the reform of the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights.
Local government:
- The DCLG and the LGO have published a review of the LGO’s governance and announced the government’s reactions to the reform proposals it outlines.
- The DCLG has published a consultation seeking views on the proposal to temporarily disapply legislation that affects Harrogate Borough Council’s ability to use the general power of competence under the Localism Act 2011 to host part of the Tour de France.
Public procurement:
- The General Court has upheld an appeal by Gaumina UAB in relation to a procurement procedure conducted by the European Institute for Gender Equality.
- The Competitiveness Council has agreed a general approach on the draft directive on e-invoicing in public procurement.
State aid:
- The European Commission has published a checklist to provide guidance for member states on notification of aid to make good the damage caused by natural disasters.
- BIS has published a new guidance document “State Aid: The Basics“.