PLC Public Sector reports:
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Commercial: in Daventry District Council v Daventry & District Housing Ltd, the Court of Appeal agreed that an outsourcing contract entered into between a local authority and company should be rectified, saving the authority £2.4 million. However, the case reinforces the importance of fully understanding the terms of a contract and the details of the documentation. The council and its advisers were lucky to escape the consequences of misunderstanding their own contract.
Education: education lawyers should be aware that:
- An amendment has been tabled to the Education Bill 2010-211 which clarifies beyond doubt that contributions by local authorities to the expenses of Academies (whether in money or in kind) do not amount to “maintaining” the school and will not breach section 6(2) of the Academies Act 2010.
- The DfE has published revised school admissions and appeals codes which will come into force in February 2012. One of the key proposals is the introduction of a new “national offer” day for primary school places on 16 April each year, to start in 2014.
Whistle-blowing: following the Court of Appeal’s decision in Cumbria County Council v Carlisle-Morgan, (a whistle-blowing case where the employees who had made a protected disclosure claimed they were subjected to a detriment in being moved to an alternative workplace), an employer can avoid liability by demonstrating that the making of the disclosure did not materially influence the detrimental treatment. The case is also interesting in that the court held an employer cannot be vicariously liable under the whistle-blowing legislation for employees who victimise their whistle-blowing colleagues.
TUPE: Employment lawyers dealing with TUPE transfers should be aware that the EAT has allowed a transferee’s appeal against an employment tribunal’s decision that employees who did not agree to changes in their terms following a TUPE transfer were automatically unfairly dismissed for a reason connected with the transfer. The matter will now be remitted to a freshly convened tribunal which will have to decide whether the reason for the changes, and the resulting dismissals, was to harmonise the transferring employees’ terms with those of the transferee’s existing employees or whether the employees were dismissed for sound economic reasons (as the transferee argued).
Sick leave: Words can be read into regulation 13(9) of the Working Time Regulations 1998 to enable sick workers to carry over all untaken statutory leave entitlement to the following leave year.
ET listing policy:Employment tribunals in England and Wales have adopted a new judicial listing policy, which means that standard unfair dismissal claims are being listed for a one-day hearing within 16 weeks of a claim being issued.
Environmental Information Regulations: information lawyers and those in local authorities looking to sell contaminated land on for development should note a recent ICO decision concerning a request for information about the nature and scale of contamination of a site in Walsall. The ICO held that there was a strong public interest in the information being disclosed and it was unlikely that disclosure would have an adverse effect on those involved in the sale of the site and therefore ordered that the requested information be disclosed.
Housing: local authority housing officers should be aware that:
- An online national home swap scheme was launched on 27 October 2011 that will allow social housing tenants, who wish to swap homes, to view all available properties throughout the country.
- The Department for Work and Pensions has published information for local authorities on the proposed new universal credit, which is a major part of the Welfare Reform Bill 2010-2011. Local authorities will need to understand the new benefit as new claimants for housing benefit will move to universal credit from October 2013 and existing claimants in receipt of housing benefit will move to universal credit from October 2013.
- The Court of Appeal has held in Mitu v London Borough of Camden that a “minded to find” notice should have been given after a second reviewing officer did not uphold an aspect of the original reviewing officer’s decision in relation to whether the applicant was intentionally homeless.
Health: healthcare lawyers in Wales should note that the Welsh Government has published its five-year vision for the NHS in Wales. Action points set out in the document include introducing personal care plans and publishing an information strategy within the next six months.
Procurement: the High Court has rejected an application by an aggrieved tenderer following the rejection of their tender for legal services. The case is a reminder that contracting authorities are under no obligation to allow bidders to correct fundamental problems with a bid once it is submitted. However contracting authorities should note that in some cases they might have a duty to seek a simple clarification of ambiguous terms of a bid (on the basis it would be unfair to exclude a bidder from the tender when it would be fairly easy to seek clarification about an obvious ambiguity or clerical error).
Legal aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill 2010-11: enforcement officers should be aware that amendments have been tabled to the Bill which would make squatting in residential buildings a criminal offence and would remove the £5,000 cap on fines that can be handed down by the magistrates’ court.
Consultations: this week consultations have been published on: