This week’s actions are:
Comprehensive area assessments (CAAs): local authorities should be aware that CAAs have been formally abolished by the government and the Audit Commission and other inspectorates have been told to stop compiling reports. Councils are now encouraged to divert resources from the bureaucracy of CAA compliance to plans for making the maximum amount of information available on-line to enable members of the public, rather than external auditors, to assess how well local needs are being met.
Compromise agreements: lawyers dealing with terminations of employment should be aware that the Court of Appeal has overturned the previous High Court decision in Gibb v Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. The Court of Appeal held that an NHS Trust could not escape paying sums due under a compromise agreement signed by the previous chief executive as it had not acted ultra vires when entering into the agreement. This decision is important as it demonstrates that the courts will only allow a public authority to renege on contractual commitments on the ground that it acted ultra vires when entering into a contract in very limited circumstances.
FOIA: information officers and any social care professional asked to contribute to a serious case review should be made aware of the ICO’s decision, in relation to disclosure of Baby P’s serious case review, holding that the importance of professionals being able to undertake serious case reviews openly outweighed any competing public interest in disclosing full details of them.
Housing: housing lawyers should be aware that the statutory right of a secure tenant to apply to postpone the date for possession following breach of a possession order under section 85(2) of the Housing Act 1985 endures after their death and passes to their estate. The decision in Austin v Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Southwark is important as it means a limited class of people who are able to succeed a secure tenant may be able to revive the deceased tenant’s secure tenancy for themselves.
Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs): the government has published a letter providing more detail on how LEPs will work in practice in relation to:
- Their role.
- How they will be governed.
- The size of the economic areas that they will cover.
Local authority leaders and business leaders should be made aware of the letter as the government has asked for proposals for LEPs between local authorities and businesses by 6 September 2010.
Planning decisions: the Court of Appeal decision in R (on the application of Harris) v The London Borough of Haringey will be of interest to planning lawyers and those sitting on local authority planning committees. The Court of Appeal held that Haringey had failed to specifically consider its equality duties under section 71 of the Race Relations Act 1976 before granting planning permission for a development even though it had undertaken extensive consultation prior to granting the permission with different racial groups.
Procurement: procurement advisers should note the Advocate General’s Opinion in European Commission v Ireland (Case C-226/09), which confirmed that it was sufficient to advertise Part B contracts; they are not obliged to detail the award criteria in the advertisement and, if they do, there is no requirement to specify their weightings. However, if weightings are attached to the award criteria, they cannot be changed after bids have been received as to do so breaches the Treaty obligation of transparency.
School exclusions: following the decision in JR17 for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) schools should ensure that statutory procedures in relation to excluded pupils are followed at all times, this includes:
- Informing the pupil of the reason for their suspension.
- Giving the excluded pupil the chance to put forward their version of events.
- Ensuring that headteachers act within their powers when excluding pupils, for example, in JR 17, the headteacher did not have the power to suspend a pupil as a “precautionary measure” he could only suspend them as a “disciplinary measure”.
Headteachers should be careful of agreeing to maintain the alleged victim’s anonymity if that person’s allegations are used as grounds for exclusion. If the victim does not agree to their name being mentioned, the fairness of the proceedings are compromised and the headteacher should consider alternative sanctions to exclusion.
Use of force in schools: those advising schools should be aware that the government has published a short summary dealing with the use of force by teachers towards pupils. Teachers and governing bodies should read the summary to ensure that they are aware of the current position in relation to using force against pupils and also that from September 2010 they will be required to record any significant incident in which force is used on a pupil and have a procedure in place for informing the pupil’s parents when this has happened.
Waste: local authorities in Wales should be aware that the Welsh Assembly Government has published its overarching waste strategy from 2010 to 2050. The strategy sets out waste reduction targets for Wales and should be read for information purposes, although consultations on sector-specific plans will follow.
Consultations: this week two consultations were published on:
- The proposed closure of magistrates’ and county courts in England and Wales.
- Planning permission in relation to houses in multiple occupation.