Practical Law

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.

Central government: lawyers in Wales should be aware that the Welsh Government has proposed a new constitutional settlement for Wales as the basis for its submission to the Silk Commission.

Civil litigation: Litigation lawyers should note that:

• The practice direction making document for the 60^th CPR update has been published.
• The Supreme Court has ruled on the circumstances in which a judge can change their own decision (L and B (Children)).

Employment: employment lawyers will be interested in the following recent developments:

• The Parental Leave (EU Directive) Regulations 2013 have been approved by Parliament.
• The EAT has held that a witness statement and the circumstances in which it was obtained can be covered by judicial proceedings immunity (Singh v Reading Borough Council and another).
• The EAT has upheld a tribunal decision holding that exempting a disabled employee from an absence management policy was not a reasonable adjustment (Jennings v Bart’s and the London NHS Trust).
• The Advocate General has given his opinion on the Alemo-Herron and others v Parkwood case stating that EU law does not prohibit a “dynamic” interpretation of TUPE in relation to collective agreements.
• A whistleblowing commission has been set up by Public Concern at Work.
• Acas has:
  • published a consultation on a draft Code of Practice on the extended right to flexible working; and
  • published its response to the government’s consultation on how the new mandatory early conciliation process should work under the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Environment: environmental lawyers may be interested in reports that EDF has launched a civil claim for damages against gas power station protest group, “No Dash for Gas”.

FOI and data protection: information lawyers should be aware that:

• The Freedom of Information (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2013 has been published.
• The Upper Tribunal has held that correspondence lists between Prince Charles and Ministers were disclosable under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (Rob Evans v Information Commissioner).
• The First-tier Tribunal has held that Southampton City Council’s policy requiring audio recording in taxis was in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 (Southampton City Council v Information Commissioner).
• The ICO has published further analysis of the proposed EU Data Protection Regulation.

Housing: housing lawyers should note that the Supreme Court has held that offering families separate units of accommodation will satisfy a local authority’s housing duty under the Housing Act 1996 (Sharif v London Borough of Camden).

Local government: local government lawyers should be aware that:

• The Active Travel (Wales) Bill has been introduced.
• The Court of Appeal has ruled that the London Borough of Haringey’s consultation on its proposed council tax reduction scheme was lawful (R (Stirling) v London Borough of Haringey).
• Supplementary guidance has been published on openness and accountability in local pay.

Property: property lawyers may be interested to note that the Land Registry is working on a pilot scheme to centralise property information on to a digitised register.

Public procurement: procurement lawyers should be aware that:

• The General Court has dismissed an appeal against an EU Publications Office tender for electronic publications (Evropaïki Dynamiki – Proigmena Systimata Tilepikoinonion Pliroforikis kai Tilematikis AE v European Commission (Case T-9/10)).
• The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts has published a report on cancelling the InterCity West Coast franchise competition.