PLC Public Sector reports:
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Adoption of roads: in relation to the blight provisions under section 19 of the Land Compensation Act 1973, highway authorities should be aware that the Court of Appeal has ruled that, despite the fact that the affected householders’ claim appeared to be out of time as three years had elapsed from the opening of the road and its adoption as a highway, they were entitled to compensation.
Employment: the Court of Appeal decision in Autoclenz Ltd v Belcher and others is a reminder for local authority employers that an employment tribunal, when determining an individual’s employment status, may disregard terms in a written agreement that do not reflect the genuine agreement of the parties.
Those working in human resources should be aware that the EAT has confirmed that an employee, who had been on sick leave for an entire leave year and had not taken any holiday during that time, was entitled to a payment for that year’s unused statutory holiday entitlement upon termination of her employment.
Environmental Information Regulations: Following an ECJ ruling, when information officers are considering a request for information made under the EIR, they should be aware that a public authority may take into account cumulatively a number of the exceptions when weighing the public interests served by disclosure against those served by a refusal to disclose. However, when aggregating interests against disclosure, public authorities must take care that they avoid double counting where there is an overlap in interests.
Equal pay claims: local authority employers should note the Court of Appeal’s finding that female employees can pursue equal pay claims for higher unsocial hours’ payments than their male comparators received, even though the women’s overall pay was greater.
FOIA: when seeking to rely on section 14 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in relation to vexatious applicants, information officers should be aware that, following the decision of the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights), the Information Commissioner is likely to be more demanding when considering the authority’s evidence of a vexatious claim. Therefore, authorities must ensure they provide corroborating evidence which gives adequate details of the volume of requests and the history of any allegations.
LGPS: when giving information to a member about their pension scheme, pension scheme administrators should be aware there will only be a pecuniary loss to the individual if that person, having received the information, changes their position to their detriment. Wrongly informing an individual that they can receive their guaranteed minimum pension from the age of 60 (rather than 65) only amounts to a non-pecuniary loss of expectation, although this may result in a Pensions Ombudsman’s finding of maladministration.
Local planning authorities: should familiarise themselves with the new regulations that come into force on 24 August 2011, which consolidate and amend the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999.
Procurement: local authorities will be interested to know that the High Court declined to quash DEFRA’s decision withdrawing £70 million in PFI credits for a major waste infrastructure project proposed by Cheshire unitary authorities, holding that there was no procedural legitimate expectation for the authorities to be consulted about the removal of the PFI credits.
Special educational needs: local authority education lawyers will welcome the decision of the Court of Appeal that there was no breach of a child in need’s Article 8 rights, where the local authority decided that he could be educated at a local school and live in a small residential home near his family, even though it was not the school of his parents’ choice.
Decommissioning: those dealing with the decommissioning of public services delivered by civil society organisations should note that the National Audit Office has published guidance on this.
Costs: local authorities involved in Court of Protection cases should be aware of a recent Court of Appeal decision holding that Manchester City Council’s “blatant disregard” of its obligations under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the ECHR justified a departure from the general rule in COP cases involving personal welfare, that there will be no order as to the costs of the proceedings or of that part of the proceedings relating to personal welfare.
Human rights: the Equality and Human Rights Commission has published an online human rights resource aimed at those in the public sector. This will be useful for local authorities looking for examples of best practice of considering human rights in relation to service delivery.
Parking restrictions: local authorities who are responsible for enforcing parking enforcement in their areas should note the Court of Appeal decision in R (Herron and another) v Parking Adjudicator [2011] EWCA Civ 905. Here the Court upheld the numerous penalty charge notices (PCNs) against the appellants, ruling that the contraventions had taken place in a valid controlled parking zone with adequate signage and as such the PCNs should continue to stand.
Consultations: this week consultations were published on: