PLC Public Sector reports:
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Employment: employment lawyers dealing with equal pay claims will be interested in the EAT’s finding in Cooksey and others v Trafford Borough Council and others that the council’s:
- On-call payments to predominantly male groups (such as electricians), which were not made to predominantly female groups such as school midday assistants, were objectively justified as the legitimate aim of such payments was to reward employees who were prepared to be on call to carry out these duties.
- Bonus payments to predominantly male groups, but not predominantly female groups, were tainted by sex and required objective justification.
Information: local authority information officers will be interested in the following:
- Decision of the First-tier Tribunal that e-mails between officers and members and draft committee reports were exempt from disclosure. The public interest did not favour disclosure of the e-mails, which concerned issues of probity on whether particular members were eligible to vote on a planning application, and the draft committee reports, upon which counsel had advised, were subject to legal professional privilege: Uttlesford District Council v Information Commissioner.
- The decision of the First-tier Tribunal disclosing the names of youth councillors’ whose names appeared on Facebook was not unfair and would not breach the first data principle, given that the individuals had chosen to make the information available on a widely used and easily accessible social-networking website, without placing any restrictions on use: John Morley v Information Commission.
- Guidance on the public interest test, the legal professional privilege exemption, calculating costs where requests span different regimes and how exceptions and the public interest test work under the Environmental Information Regulations published by the ICO.
- That regulations have been laid which bring information-sharing of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 into force. The Social Security (Information-sharing in relation to Welfare Services etc.) Regulations 2012 set out the “prescribed information” in relation to the provision of overnight care by local authorities, the purposes for which the Secretary of State may supply relevant information to a “qualifying person” and the purposes for which information can be “held”.
Local government: local authority lawyers should note that:
- The Localism Act 2011 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional, Savings and Transitory Provisions) Order 2012 has been made and will bring a number of provisions of the Localism Act 2011 into force throughout June and July 2012, including those relating to local authority codes of conduct, the community right to challenge and local housing authorities allocation policies.
- The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012 have been published and will come into force on 1 July 2012. The regulations specify the pecuniary interests that members and co-opted members are required to include in the register of interests.
Regulation and enforcement: local government officers dealing with cases in the magistrates’ court should be aware that there are proposed changes in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 which will affect all primary and secondary legislation governing the magistrates’ courts power to impose fines for a criminal offence. The changes, which have not yet commenced, mean that magistrates will be able to impose unlimited fines on those convicted of a summary and either-way offence.
Consultations: this week consultations were published on:
The Department for Communities and Local Government has also published a summary of responses to its consultation on changes to competent person self-certification schemes in England and Wales.