PLC Public Sector reports:
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Public sector pensions: Everyone in the public sector will be interested in the government’s announcement that it has reached heads of agreement with the unions on the scope of changes to the main public-sector pension schemes. These include an agreement that the Fair Deal policy, which governs the treatment of pension rights on public to private outsourcings, will stay in place.
Education: Education lawyers will be interested in the following cases heard by the High Court:
- R (Wood) v Secretary of State for Education. Here the High Court rejected a claim for judicial review based on a substantive legitimate expectation held by the claimant, a teacher accused of indecent assault, that he would not be placed on the children’s barred list.
- R (Roberts) v Welsh Ministers and another, in which the High Court held that a “local schools for local children” policy adopted by Cardiff City Council was not unlawful in relation to its proposed changes to the medium school provision in Cardiff.
Environment: environment lawyers will be interested in:
- The decision in R (Friends of the Earth and others) v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change finding that the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s proposal to cut feed-in tariffs (FITs) on 12 December 2011, 11 days before its consultation on that proposal closed (on 23 December 2011), was unlawful because it breached the statutory scheme for modifying FITs.
- The updated enforcement guidance published by Natural England, which explains how it will use civil sanctions in the enforcement of certain habitats and wildlife legislation, including offences in relation to Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
Equality Act 2010: public bodies subject to the duties under the Equality Act 2010 should be aware that the Equality and Human Rights Commission has updated a number of its guides dealing with the equality duty to reflect the final version of the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 (SI 2011/2260).
FOIA/EIR: information lawyers should note:
- The Court of Appeal decision in Birkett v Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where it held that public authorities that initially relied on particular exceptions under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (SI 2004/3391) may later rely on additional or different exceptions, without the permission of the Information Commissioner or the First-tier Tribunal.
- The information rights strategy published by the Information Commissioner’s Office detailing how it approaches and fulfils its functions relating to data protection and freedom of information.
Housing: housing lawyers should note:
- That the Mayor of London has published the Revised London Housing Strategy. The revised strategy sets out the Mayor of London’s proposals for meeting London’s housing needs, including measures to unlock public land for development and to help developers restart stalled schemes.
- The summary of the use of the Build Now, Pay Later on the disposal of surplus public sector land published by the government.
Cutting funding: Anyone advising a public authority on cutting funding to third sector organisations should note the process followed by Greenwich London Borough Council, which was held to be lawful in R (Greenwich Community Law Centre) v Greenwich London Borough Council.
CIL: local government lawyers should note that the Local Authorities (Contracting Out of Community Infrastructure Levy Functions) Order 2011 (SI 2011/2918) came into force on 7 December 2011. It enables a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) authority in England and Wales to delegate to a contractor functions relating to the setting, charging, collection, enforcement and spending of the CIL.
Highways: local authorities will welcome the decision of the High Court in Cusack v London Borough of Harrow, where it was held that exercising powers under section 80 of the Highways Act 1980 is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Town and village green registration: The decision in Leeds Group plc v Leeds City Council will be of interest to anyone advising on the registration of land as a town or village green under the Countryside Rights of Way Act 2000.
Public procurement: public procurement lawyers will be interested in:
- The decision of the Northern Ireland High Court in Resource NI v Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service where it set aside a contract award decision of the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunal Service. The court concluded that the contracting authority had made a manifest and serious error in its assessment of one part of the successful tender, by taking into account immaterial considerations that were not specified in the tender documents.
- The Procurement Policy Note on the new public procurement thresholds to apply from 1 January 2012 and on changes in the use of the accelerated restricted procedure published by the Cabinet Office. The note sets out the threshold values to apply from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2013. It also explains that the relaxation of the use of the accelerated restricted procedure, which the European Commission introduced in 2009 as an emergency measure during the financial crisis, has been withdrawn.
- A note published by the Cabinet Office setting out its initial views on the European Commission’s proposals to modernise the EU public procurement rules. The Cabinet Office is seeking comments on the proposals to help inform its position in the negotiations on the proposals, which will take place throughout 2012.
Consultations: this week consultations were published on: