PLC Public Sector reports:
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Adult social care: local authorities will be relieved by the decision of the Supreme Court in R(McDonald) v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in which the court held that the council was entitled to cut funding for the appellant’s care which meant that she was no longer entitled to a night-time carer to assist her to access a commode.
Local authorities should also be aware that the Dilnot Commission has published its report on social care recommending, among other things, that there should be a cap on individual lifetime contribution to care costs, ideally to around £35,000.
Education: those advising schools should draw their attention to newly published health and safety guidance covering off-site activities and visits.
Housing: local authorities in Wales should note that the Housing Renewal Grants (Prescribed Form and Particulars) (Revocation) (Wales) Regulations 2011 have come into force. The regulations no longer require that an application form is used by those seeking housing renewal grants from local authorities.
Discrimination: local authority lawyers should be aware that the Court of Appeal in Grant v HM Land Registry held that a gay employee who put his sexuality into the public domain by coming out at work had not been directly discriminated or harassed on grounds of sexual orientation since, in providing that information to colleagues, he risked that information being discussed between colleagues. However, the fact that an employee has come out does not mean that subsequent remarks or references to sexuality cannot amount to discrimination or harassment since this will depend on the circumstances, including to whom the remark was made, in what terms and for what purpose.
Employment: local authority employment lawyers should be aware that:
- The Supreme Court in R (G) v The Governors of X School has reversed the previous decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal that the school’s refusal to allow G legal representation violated his Article 6 Convention rights. The Supreme Court held that the question of G’s right to practice his profession as a teaching assistant, following an inappropriate relationship with a pupil, was exclusively a matter for the ISA as only it can decide who goes on the children’s barred list. Article 6 of the ECHR applies to proceedings before the ISA. However, the school’s disciplinary proceedings against G did not engage Article 6 since it was not a part of their function to determine the civil right in issue. They were only concerned with X’s employment at the school.
- The EAT has given guidance on how to determine when a dismissal is to be regarded as automatically unfair for a health and safety reason.
- The decision of the EAT in Publicis Consultants UK Ltd v O’Farrell, that a termination payment described as “ex gratia” cannot be used to meet its obligation to pay damages for breach of contract, means employers should take care when drafting termination letters or protect themselves with a compromise agreement.
- Following the EAT’s decision in Sheffield City Council v Norouzi, local authority employers should ensure they try and protect their employees from regular racial harassment in their working environment to ensure that they are not found liable for indirect race discrimination and race harassment under the Race Relations Act 1976 and the EC Race Directive.
FOIA: in FS50315994 (London Borough of Hackney) the ICO considered that the correct test to be applied to the disclosure of IP addresses of those that responded to an online survey conducted by Hackney, was not just whether the information was personal data in the hands of the public authority. Although it was possible that some of the IP addresses held by Hackney might be personal data, as Hackney had a greater ability to link the data to other information, such as post codes, the ICO considered the focus must be on the process of disclosure and whether any member of the public could identify an individual from the IP address. However, the ICO was satisfied that an IP address, which is a series of numbers, was anonymous and that as it did not constitute personal data it should be disclosed.
Licensing: licensing authorities will welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision that an appeal to a magistrates’ court against a licensing authority’s decision to revoke a licence under section 181 of the Licensing Act 2003, is a fresh hearing at which the parties are entitled to adduce further evidence.
Regulation of child employment: those local authority officers involved in the regulation of child employment should familiarise themselves with the recommendations for reform of child employment contained in the research report commissioned by the Department for Education.
Consultations: this week consultations have been published on: