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.
This week’s actions are:
Education: lawyers advising maintained schools in Wales and their governing bodies should alert them to:
- New regulations relating to the staffing of schools that come into force on 2 November 2009.
- A new measure imposing a duty to promote healthy eating and drinking in their schools.
Environment: waste authorities working to effectively manage waste in their areas will be interested in Defra’s recent statement setting out how it proposes to further implement the 2007 Waste Strategy for England. In particular, such authorities may wish to take advantage of the offer of advice and funding to set up pilot trade waste collection services.
Environmental Information Regulations (EIR): officers in local authorities who deal with information requests should be alerted to the important decision of the Information Tribunal that the exception in regulation 12(5)(e) of the EIR applies to the public authority’s own confidential information and not just to confidential information provided to it by a third party.
Finance: local authority officers responsible for preparing the local authority’s annual statement of accounts should be reminded that the new requirement to include information in the accounts about senior officers’ remuneration comes into force on 31 March 2010.
Housing: in view of the decision of the:
- European Court of Human Rights in Paulic, local authority housing lawyers are likely to continue to see Article 8 raised as a defence in proceedings for summary orders for possession.
- Local Government Ombudsman in Bury Metropolitan Borough Council, local housing authorities should ensure that they have systems in place recording any action that is taken following recommendations from front-line staff about an individual’s housing and that there is a process for reviewing the decision if the recommendations are not acted upon by senior management.
Litigation: local authority litigators should bear in mind that, following the decision in Sampla v Rushmoor Borough Council, a party can change its mind and accept a Part 36 offer having previously rejected it.
New powers: local authorities will wish to consider which officers, who already undertake financial investigations to recover local authority assets or fraudulent payments, should be trained as accredited financial investigators under the new POCA regulations.
Procurement: procurement officers should take note of the Advocate General’s opinion dealing with the principle of transparency and whether the procurement rules apply to the award of a services concession by a local authority. The Advocate General considered that:
- Appointing a new sub-contractor without advertising the opportunity breached the principle of transparency.
- Where a public authority had entered into a joint venture with one or more private sector organisations, any award of a contract to the joint venture had to comply with the public procurement regime.
Consultations: this week there were four consultations on:
- Ofsted’s complaints procedure.
- A new accreditation process for school providers.
- Draft guidance for waste operations exempted from regulation under the Environmental Permitting regime.
- Proposals for regulations and guidance governing direct payments for health care.
- In addition, the Department of Health sought comments on its intention to address a discrepancy in the regulations applied by local authorities when determining how much a care home resident is able to pay towards their care so that they reflect current local authorities’ assessment practices.
If you wish to submit your views on any of the actions we have recommended, or would like to highlight any other issues that you feel need action by public sector lawyers, please feel free to submit a comment below.