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 4 September 2013.
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.
Education and children’s services:
- The Education (Information about Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013 have been made and come into force on 1 January 2014.
- The High Court has granted parents permission to discuss the case of their adoptive daughter (who had been made a ward of court) with the media, subject to conditions to preserve the daughter’s anonymity (Re K (A Child: Wardship: Publicity)).
- The Upper Tribunal has held that the meaning of “unreasonable public expenditure” in section 9 of the Education Act 1996 should be given a narrow interpretation when assessing the cost of placing a child with special educational needs at a school (WH v Warrington Borough Council (SEN)).
- The Department for Education has updated its advice on school attendance to help schools and local authorities maintain high levels of school attendance.
Environment:
- Defra has published the results of its consultation on revoking the Site Waste Management Plans Regulations 2008 in England and plans to revoke the regulations with effect from 1 October 2013.
FOI and data protection:
- The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Commencement No 9) Order 2013 has been made, which brought into force in England on 1 September 2013 the provisions in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 relating to the requirement to obtain parental consent before schools can process biometric data.
- The First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) has overturned an ICO fine of £250,000 imposed on the Scottish Borders Council under section 55A of the Data Protection Act 1998, after a data processor discarded employee pension files in a supermarket recycling facility (Scottish Borders Council v The Information Commissioner).
- The European Commission has published a consultation on proposals to introduce guidance and advice on increasing the re-use of public sector information.
Health:
- The Department of Health has published new versions of its standard NHS terms and conditions for the supply of goods and for the provision of services.
- Monitor has published a statement of issues in its investigation into purchasing decisions taken by NHS England and its predecessor body in the procurement of Gamma Knife radiosurgery services.
Human rights:
- The European Court of Human Rights has dismissed the UK government’s objection that an applicant’s application was inadmissible under the European Convention on Human Rights for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies (Malik v The United Kingdom).
Local government:
- The Welsh Government is consulting on draft regulations amending the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990.
- The Committee on Standards in Public Life has published its annual 2012/13 report and expressed continued concern about the local government standards regime.
Property and planning:
- The Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013 (Commencement No 4) Order 2013 has been made, bringing into force certain provisions of the Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013.
- The Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 will come into force in England on 1 October 2013.
- The 12 October 2013 deadline for registering certain overriding interests is approaching.
- The DCLG has launched a new website containing draft streamlined national planning practice guidance.
Public procurement:
- The European Ombudsman has published a decision criticising the European Commission’s delay in handling a public procurement complaint.
Regulation and enforcement:
- Defra has published its response to the consultation on proposed changes to the Gangmasters Licensing Authority.
- BIS has published the draft Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading (Amendment) Regulations 2013 for scrutiny.