PLC Public Sector reports:
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Charities: charities lawyers may be interested in the:
- Select Committee post-legislative scrutiny of the Charities Act 2006, which reports that the public benefit provisions of the Act are “critically flawed“.
- Consultation launched on a proposed new tax relief for individuals’ private investment in social enterprise.
Civil litigation: litigation lawyers may be interested that:
- The Court of Appeal has dismissed an application to publish its judgments on FSA (now FCA) proceedings in a redacted and anonymised form (R (Christopher Willford) v Financial Services Authority).
- Amendments to the Pre-Action Protocol for judicial review have been published.
Employment: employment lawyers should be aware that:
- The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 Commencement No 1 Order has been made, which brings into force some employment law provisions of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERRA) from 25 June 2013.
- BIS has published a timetable of updated commencement dates for other employment provisions in ERRA.
- The draft Unfair Dismissal (Variation of the Limit of Compensatory Award) Order 2013 has been published and is planned to be implemented in July.
- The EAT has upheld a huge costs award against an unrepresented claimant of limited means, despite the absence of a costs warning (Vaughan v London Borough of Lewisham and others).
- The EAT has held that the dismissal of an employee who made repeated complaints of race discrimination was victimisation (Woodhouse v West North West Homes Leeds Ltd).
- The Health and Safety Executive is consulting on its proposal for health and safety duties in relation to pregnant women and nursing mothers to remain strict liability.
- Acas has published its response to the consultation on a code of practice for settlement agreements.
Environment: environmental lawyers should note the Environment Agency’s updated guidance:
- On surrender of environmental permits and site condition reports.
- For large combustion plants.
FOI and data protection: information lawyers should be aware of the:
- Cabinet Office guidance to government departments on the use of private e-mails.
- Statutory guidance on extending the retention period of biometric data for the purposes of national security under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
Health: health officials may wish to read:
- NHS England’s strategy for commissioning support services.
- Monitor and NHS England’s engagement document seeking views on their proposals for the 2014/15 National Tariff and the rules and guidance for local price setting.
Housing: housing officers should look at the Court of Appeal’s judgment on what should happen to a deposit when a statutory tenancy arises (Superstrike Ltd v Rodrigues).
Local government: local government lawyers should note the:
- New guide for the public on attending and reporting on council meetings.
- DCLG’s consultation on its proposal to exempt all newly-built commercial property from empty property business rates.
Property and planning: property lawyers may be interested that the:
- Planning application process is being streamlined from 25 June 2013.
- Court of Appeal has ruled that section 15(4) of the Commons Act 2006 is not incompatible with human rights law (Newhaven Port and Properties Ltd) v Secretary of State for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs).
- Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has awarded compensation for an overhead electricity line crossing development land (Arnold White Estates Ltd v National Grid Electricity Transmission plc).
- Land Registry has amended its Practice Guides 25, 49 and 68.
- Government has announced changes to the planning process for onshore wind.
Public procurement: procurement officers should note the:
- ECJ’s ruling on whether a contract between local authorities is a public contract under the procurement rules in Directive 2004/18 (Piepenbrock Dienstleistungen GmbH & Co KG v Kreis Düren).
- General Court’s dismissal of an appeal against a procurement procedure conducted by the Eulex Mission in Kosovo (Elitaliana SpA v Eulex Kosovo).
- Government’s new best practice guide for public and private sectors on working together on PFI/PPP projects.
- Infrastructure Cost Review annual report 2012-13, a progress review under the Infrastructure Cost Review Implementation Plan.
Regulation and enforcement: enforcement officers and lawyers should be aware that:
- BIS has published a timetable of dates when the provisions on local authority regulation in ERRA will come into force.
- The High Court has considered the proper construction of the waste duty of care under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Mountpace Ltd v London Borough of Haringey).