09/05/2012

When and why will a court rectify legislation?

The decision of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) (CACD) in OB v Director of the Serious Fraud Office [2012]  EWCA Civ 501 is an interesting one in that it confirms the approach the court will take to dealing with ambiguities in legislation. For the background to the decision, see Legal update, Contempt of court: civil or criminal? (Court of Appeal). Having dismissed the appellant OB’s appeal and upheld his committal to prison for contempt, the CACD indicated that it was minded to refuse his request to seek permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. 

Continue reading →

02/05/2012

Public procurement case digest (April 2012)

PLC Public Sector reports:

Our public procurement case law digest for April 2012 focuses on the obligation on a contracting authority to seek clarification or further information from bidders and considers whether there has been a disagreement of what the requirements are between the ECJ and the High Court.

Please feel free to submit a comment below or contact us at: feedback@practicallaw.com 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 →

25/04/2012

Influential thinktank’s survey into how local authorities are implementing the new health and wellbeing boards under the Health and Social Care Act 2012

Although many of the provisions in the Health and Social Care Bill 2010-12 were the subject of great controversy as the Bill made its way onto the statute book, the proposals for the creation of health and wellbeing boards (HWBs) have been universally welcomed by local government (demonstrated by the fact that 90% of affected local authorities signed up to pilot HWBs ahead of the April 2012 statutory deadline). Although the purpose of HWBs  is to encourage local authorities to take a more strategic approach to providing integrated health and local government services by bringing together those involved across the NHS, public health, adult social care and children’s services, concerns have been raised as to how effective the boards will be, see Article, Health and wellbeing boards and public health. Continue reading →

05/04/2012

Contaminated land rules OK? Well, no, actually

Howard Price, Principal Policy Officer, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (representing local authority officers responsible for the regulation of contaminated land):

New guidance containing rules on dealing with contaminated land will shortly be brought into effect by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).  The rules replace statutory guidance from 2006 made under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Importantly, they will bind local authority regulators who, unusually, must ‘act in accordance with’ them.

Continue reading →