PLC Public Sector reports:
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Adult social services: local authorities should note the LGO report finding the London Borough of Bromley guilty of maladministration causing injustice after it failed to monitor conditions in a contracted care home which resulted in the long-term provision of sub-standard care to the complainant’s father, and to ensure that adequate procedures were in place to effectively monitor the standard of care provided by its contracted care homes.
Bursary scheme for 16-19 year olds: those responsible for administering the 16-19 bursary scheme should note that the Young People’s Learning Agency has written to local authorities clarifying their role in administering the scheme.
Civil litigation: local authority litigation lawyers should ensure that statements provided by witnesses in proceedings do not include details of the legal advice which they have received, given the Court of Appeal’s decision that including such details in a statement constitutes a waiver of privilege and entitles the other side to cross-examine the witness on that evidence.
Education: in view of the High Court’s decision in G v Head Teacher and Governor of St Gregory’s Catholic Science College that a school’s uniform policy prohibiting boys from wearing their hair in cornrows was unlawful and resulted in indirect racial discrimination, those responsible for drawing up school uniform policies:
- Will need to re-examine their hair and clothing policies for potential discrimination.
- Should be aware that the policy cannot be applied rigidly but must allow for exceptions, not only for those of religious beliefs, but for those pupils who contend that a culture or family practice means they cannot conform to the policy.
Employment: local authority employment lawyers involved in TUPE transfers will be interested to know that that the Supreme Court has held that there should be a reference to the ECJ to establish the interpretation regulation 5 of TUPE 1981 should be given under Article 3.1 of the Acquired Rights directive. Pending a ruling by the ECJ, the Court of Appeal’s decision that TUPE only transfers static contractual terms (that is collectively-agreed terms at the date of transfer and not terms agreed after the transfer) has not been overruled.
Local authority employment lawyers involved in tribunal work will be interested that the EAT in Mirikwe v Wilson & Co Solicitors has held that there is no requirement upon a tribunal to take a claimant’s means into account when awarding costs on an indemnity basis.
Finance: local authority finance officers should familiarise themselves with the guidance issued by the DCLG on cancelling certain backdated rates liabilities relating to the 2005 rating list.
FOI and data protection: information practitioners should note the decision of High Court in R(Department of Health) v Information Commissioner [2011], in which the court held that “ground E” abortion statistics were not personal data under the Data Protection Act 1998 and therefore could not be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The decision will be relevant whenever a request for statistical information based on personal data is received.
Public procurement: public procurement officers should familiarise themselves with the Court of Appeal decision which provides useful clarification that, if the award criteria and their weighting, and the sub-criteria of the award criteria, have been established and described in the contract to documents, a contracting authority is not obliged to announce in advance the weightings that it intends to apply to the sub-criteria.
School governance: those acting for schools should note that the School Governance (Contracts) (England) (Revocation) Regulations 2011 come into force on 20 July 2011. These revoke the 2005 version of the regulations which required governing bodies of maintained schools to consider the Code of Practice on Workforce Matters in Public Sector Service Contracts.
Social services: social workers when conducting age assessments must remember how important it is to address each of the relevant factors that have a bearing on a lawful age assessment of an asylum seeker claiming to be a child. In R (R) v London Borough of Croydon, the High Court preferred the council’s assessment of the individual’s age to the statistical assessment reached by a paediatrician, which the court considered less reliable, because the social worker had regard to all material factors when concluding that the asylum seeker was 18 years old.
Waste authorities: waste authorities should familiarise themselves with:
- The draft regulations which come into force on 1 October 2011 and increase the targets of biodegradable municipal waste that may be sent to landfill in the UK.
- The government’s review of its waste policy which has been published together with other key documents on Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme changes and household reward and recognition schemes.
Consultations: this week consultations have been published on:
- Draft guidance to transfer private sewers.
- Updating value limits for long residential leases.
- Institutional reform of consumer bodies.
Also:
- Those dealing with legally-aided claimants should note that the government response to the consultation on proposed reforms to legal aid highlights has been published alongside the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill 2010-11.
- The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published its response to the government’s consultation on reforming the EHRC’s powers and duties.