PLC Public Sector reports:
Make sure that you have not missed a key development in your area of the law by reviewing our latest list of recommended actions.
Equal pay: employment lawyers should note the decision of the High Court accepting that equal pay claims which would have been out of time in an employment tribunal could proceed as breach of contract claims in the civil courts.
Academies and FOIA: those advising Academy schools and Academy Trusts should encourage staff to read the guide recently published by the Department for Education on the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and how Academies should deal with requests for information.
Funding of education and training for 16-19 year olds: local authorities, schools, colleges and other educational providers should be aware of the guidance that has been published by the Young People’s Learning Agency this week. The guidance outlines the system for training and educating those in 16-19 education for the 2011/12 academic year.
School governors: those responsible for advising school governing bodies should make them aware that Key tasks for school governors: autumn term has been published setting out key and statutory tasks to be undertaken by them in the autumn term of 2011.
Unitary authorities: local authorities should be aware that following the High Court decision preventing the creation of unitary councils, the Local Government Act 2010 has now been given Royal Assent, which ends any hopes of restructuring councils in Norfolk and Devon, or in Suffolk where proposals had also been made.
Localism: local authorities wishing to submit requests about improving localism in their areas under the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 should visit the government website where they can do so.
Arm’s length bodies: public authorities dealing with the merging or closing of arm’s length bodies should note that the National Audit Office has published a guide on this subject.
Health: those advising local authorities, as well as those advising NHS trusts, will be interested in the government’s publication of its next steps for NHS reform.
Mental health: local authorities and health boards should note that the Mental Health (Wales) Measure has been given Royal Approval, placing a number of statutory duties on them in relation to the provision of mental health services.
Statutory guidance on implementing the autism strategy: local authorities and NHS organisations should take note of the statutory guidance published by the Department of Health on supporting the implementation of the autism strategy published in March 2010.
Planning: planning lawyers should note that the Advisory Team for Large Applications has published new guidance on Planning Performance Agreements.
Public procurement: procurement lawyers will be interested in decisions by:
- The ECJ on the application of the public procurement rules to public/private joint ventures.
- The High Court in lifting an automatic suspension of a contract award decision.
- The High Court finding that while a public procurement process had breached the gender equality duty set out in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the claim had been brought out of time.
Information law: public authorities holding confidential commercial information from third parties should take comfort from a recent decision by the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) holding that where environmental information is subject to a legal duty of confidentiality there is a strong public interest in not disclosing the valuable commercial confidential information, as to do so may be a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. However, the Tribunal made it clear that the individual circumstances of each case will be relevant in deciding whether to override the duty of confidence for particular pieces of commercial information.
Further, authorities should be aware that the Information Commissioner’s Office has recently issued a series of decision notices requiring the disclosure of confidential information under both the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
Consultations: this week there were consultations on: