REUTERS | Dani Cardona
08/03/2017

Public procurement policy review: December 2016 to February 2017

This post sets out the key developments in public procurement legislation and policy that lawyers need to be aware of and covers the period from December 2016 to February 2017. The post does not consider case law as this is covered in our monthly public case digest. For a summary of the latest cases, see Public Procurement case digest (January 2017). A new case digest covering cases from February and March 2017 will be published at the start of April.

Subscribers to Practical Law can keep up to date with the latest public procurement developments by signing up to the Practical Law Public Law or Practical Law Local Government email updates (available weekly) or the Practical Law Competition updates (available daily). Continue reading →

REUTERS | Ali Jarekji
28/02/2017

Public children law digest (January – February 2017) Part 1

This is part one of the public children law update blog to give readers a snapshot of the important cases, issues and developments from January to February 2017. Please feel free to submit a comment below or send us an Ask query if you have any views on the cases, issues, or legal developments that are covered or if you think we have missed something that should be brought to the attention of child care law practitioners.

In this post, we look at the following:

  • Claims under the Human Rights Act 1998.
  • Secure accommodation orders in Scottish law.

Continue reading →

REUTERS | David Bebber
28/02/2017

Miller and the Human Rights Act 1998: can the Government withdraw the UK from the ECHR by the royal prerogative?

Theresa May is reportedly planning, in the long term, to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR” or “the Convention”) by introducing such a commitment in the next Conservative Party manifesto. After the Supreme Court’s judgment in R(Miller and another) v Secretary of State for Exiting the EU [2017] UKSC 5 (“Miller“), could the government implement this by using executive powers (the foreign relations prerogative to withdraw from treaties), or would the government require prior Parliamentary authorisation whilst the Human Rights Act 1998 (“HRA”) is in force? In this short post, I outline some initial considerations to answer this question.

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REUTERS | Vasily Fedosenko
15/02/2017

Costs order made based on the conduct of parties to judicial review proceedings

Although the general rule in relation to the award of costs in judicial review is, as in other proceedings, that costs follow the case, the courts traditionally exercise a considerable discretion and may take into account the conduct of the parties (CPR 44.2). In Taylor v Honiton Town Council [2017] EWHC 101, the court was required to determine costs following an application by the claimant councillor for judicial review of the town council’s decision to impose sanctions upon him for breach of its code of conduct in accordance with the statutory regime contained in the Localism Act 2011 (LA 2011). Continue reading →

REUTERS | Stephane Mahe
08/02/2017

Public procurement case digest (January 2017)

January’s case digest includes an ECJ ruling creating a possible “third way” for public authorities to organise the delivery of public services extending beyond the existing possibilities first established by the Teckal and Hamburg in-house case law, and a High Court judgement on the award of damages that contains a detailed examination of the core principles set out in Francovich and Factortame.

Please feel free to submit a comment below or send us an Ask query if you have any views on the cases covered, or think that we have missed a case that should be brought to the attention of public procurement practitioners. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Gleb Garanich
07/02/2017

Local government quarterly digest (October 2016 – January 2017)

This is the latest in our series of quarterly local government update blogs, which will enable readers to catch up on the most important cases, issues or developments in local government from October 2016 to January 2017.

Please feel free to submit a comment below or send us an Ask query if you have any views on the cases, issues, or legal developments covered or if you think we have missed something that should be brought to the attention of local government practitioners.

In this post we look at:

  • Cases of interest to local authorities.
  • Other developments of interest to local authority lawyers.

Continue reading →